VVLC
by Vincent Van
Summary: Vincent Van has just been accepted into Beacon Academy where he will train to become a huntsman unlike any seen before him. He will meet friends, enemies, dangers beyond his wildest nightmares, and the beauty of life and maybe even love. Team of OC's with epic storytelling involving action, humor... and romance? Oh yeah, and it follows canon technically, until I run out of canon!
1. Chapter 1

_Uhh, first fanfiction, please enjoy. Oh and VVLC does stand for a word, and don't give me crap about it, I'm not there yet._

Ch. 1 The Flower and The Artist

It was a bright evening in the city of Vale; the crumbling moon was shining over every street and alley. Vincent noticed this as he meandered down the quiet residential district late at night. Vincent Van was an artist; he had been doing some portraits for people around the area that night. With his easel still on his back, and his brush in hand, Vincent decided to partake in the beauty of the city/add to it with his own painting style even though some call it vandalism.

He casually looked over to see a dust shop still open about a block away, what was it called again? From Dust till Dawn or something when all of a sudden he felt a powerful and dark presence, reminding him of… no he can't remember that.

He saw five men walk into the shop armed, only there for one reason. He heard begging, shuffling, commanding, and was that rock music? Before he knew it suddenly two people came flying through the front window of the shop. Clearly things were going down. He saw that the one doing the breaking was none other than a teenage girl, probably a fighter by the look of her, and when she stood up to greet the other men, Vincent had to be in awe as the girl revealed great handling of her weapon, and stood in the perfect way, that he was terrified of her, but would love to recreate the image for some art.

The real fighting broke out, now I know what you're thinking, and yes Vincent would have helped in the fight against evil whenever he could, but something stopped him from directly intervening, he wanted to see this girl's mettle. So instead he knelt down, started painting some shapes on the ground in areas around the shop. The fighting was almost over, when he was done and the girl was in pursuit of the presumed leader of the gang, escaping up the only exit Vincent had not covered. At this point, the thugs that were remaining on the street attempted to escape, but were easily trapped by Vincent's "artwork", which were aura infused paintings taking on Vincent's specific needs, for instance one walked over a black spot, which was really a deep pit, and one tried to hide in an unassuming alley where the net on the wall manifested itself, and one made a dash for it but was caught by some well-crafted dogs. Vincent was caught off guard by the glaring sound of a large dust crystal enhanced explosion.

Looking up, he saw two figures on the roof, the girl, and a witch or teacher or something. The witch then immediately began barraging her target, a getaway jet. After a few seconds a woman stepped into view on the ship. Vincent was finally able to put a face to the darkness he had sensed earlier. The two women began volleying each other with huge amounts of power and aura. Then the girl tried to assist the witch, but instead distracted her just long enough for the airship to get away. After that I heard the girl say something along the lines of the witch being a huntress, and wanting her autograph. The witch responded by forcefully navigating the girl to be interrogated.

To be honest, Vincent was very shaken up by what he saw that night and decided instead of sleeping for the big day at Beacon tomorrow, to go to work on his next piece of beauty. Without waiting to go home, Vincent threw his easel off his back and began to put into the physical world what he had seen and felt just moments ago. He started with a moon, a fine moon, but instead of crumbling he left it full, to symbolize both the fullness of his soul, and the bright and shining examples he had seen of the good in the world.

Before he even began though, he heard some obnoxiously loud and very hardcore rock music, and lost his focus. But I'll get to that later.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2, here's hoping you will enjoy it. Thanks for making it to Chapter 2, and take care._

Ch. 2 Odd Artist Out

Ah, first day at the prestigious Beacon Academy, Vincent was here he'd finally done it, and accomplished the first step of his dream of becoming a huntsman. The view of Vale and Beacon from up in the airship was magnificent. Vincent was so caught up in the beauty he never saw the events that transpired between the other initiates of Beacon.

Although, he didn't stop hearing, and he heard a lot. His attention was caught by the sound of some guy getting airsick, and then some girls getting grossed out about it being on one of their shoes. He let out a small chuckle as he heard this, and turned to see the young hunters that were in this commotion.

Only after he looked away from the window, did he realize that he had picked up on a conversation on the other half of the airship, and was slightly saddened to see that there was no one he could talk to or even really see close by.

After this incident Vincent went back to watching the ground and the grand artistry of Vale go by until it was time to get off. Once he got off, the young man in the straw hat immediately picked up on every detail of events again. The young man evacuating his stomach again, the oohs and awes of onlookers at the ancient school, and an argument between two girls which exploded, and I mean literally exploded. He tried to pick on the voices as yet a third girl joined into the discussion. He heard three voices: one was strong, maybe even harsh, definitely raised in a wealthy upbringing; the next was fairly quiet and mysterious, harboring torment from both outside and in; and the third was upbeat, cheerful, young…

"Wait is that the voice of that girl from the other night?" Vincent looked up to see the three girls, two of which were exactly what he expected to see, and the third was in fact that young girl he had seen the other night. Vincent was very distraught by this appearance of who he thought was a random stranger one night. He didn't even notice that he was walking right into this other girl; though to be fair she was dark, ominous, and quiet.

"Watch where you're going, or I swear I'll leave you out to die on a huge wooden pole!" said this mysterious girl forcefully.

"My apologies miss." Vincent said as he helped himself off the ground.

"Oh, no wait I'm sorry." Said the girl to Vincent, she told him how she loses her control on her emotions sometimes and 'lashes' out. This girl oddly enough also had a fancy and maybe even foreign way she spoke, with dark brown hair like those old skeletons, iridescent green-gold eyes, and a purple um jumpsuit complete with silver skirt, but then again it seems they let all walks of life into Beacon since Vincent is here. Anyway back to the mysterious girl.

"I'm Vladlina by the way." Said the dark girl. "Vladlina Drake."

"Nice to meet you miss Drake." Vincent said in his most kindhearted humor voice. Vladlina enjoyed his sense of humor almost as much as he did, because she flashed a warm and friendly smile at him.

"So what's your name?" Vladlina asked.

"I'm Vincent." He said, as he scratched his scraggly chin the way he always did when he was uncomfortable.

"Wait, Vincent Van, heir to the Van Clan?!" Vladlina stuttered, in shock of his identity.

"In a way, yes, I am." Vincent relinquished.

"If you are from such a prestigious bloodline, then why are you dressed like that?" Vladlina questioned, referring to his cheap brown overcoat, his blue button up shirt, his straw hat, and his rather noticeable five o' clock shadow.

"It's because I was banished for being unworthy of the family name and subsequent money." Vincent said looking down.

"Oh, well having money isn't all it's cracked up to be." Vladlina said, with a cold stare off into space.

"Yeah, I believe it," he said. "You know the best things in life are free." He continued in his matter of fact voice in a vain effort to lighten the mood.

"Shut up man, or we'll be late for the welcome wagon speech!" She exclaimed dragging him to get to the gathering of students in the main opening. In all the conversing Vincent completely lost track of time and his surroundings and was almost late.


	3. Chapter 3

_It's short for today, but is key to the story. As always enjoy, and take care._

Ch. 3 Sleepless Artist

Okay picture the most cramped, crowded, unwelcoming place known, the ballroom where initiates were supposed to sleep on their first night was worse. Vincent couldn't hear himself think, and there was no way he was going to fall asleep in the madness. So he decided to do what any diseased mind seeking refuge does at night, he snuck out to be alone.

It was dark out since the moon was not very full, and Vincent didn't really like that, he loved using his eyes to see everything around him to experience it and understand it. It was so dark that Vincent had to pull himself out of his thoughts just in time to avoid running into another girl that was outside.

"Ok, what is this school some sort of cheesy soap opera, pay attention Vincent Van!" Vincent thought very loudly. He was however walking very quietly, and behind this girl, so he figured she didn't notice him yet, and planned on sneaking away when she said "Oh no Vincent Van, let me hear all about this Soap Opera thing it sounds good." She joked; Vincent realized only too late that he had spoken out loud.

"Well you see…" he began "Earlier today I ran into this other girl by accident, and then I was forced to make small talk." He explained. "Wait who are you, why do you care, and why am I telling you?" he pondered.

"I'm Claudia Augusta, my interest was piqued when you almost snuck up on me, and I don't know why you are telling me Vincent." She answered fluently. At the mention of his name again he blushed and tried to hide it with clever use of a scraggly chin, and his hand.

"Um, well Claudia, since we're revealing ourselves, I didn't mean to sneak up on you, and there's probably some sappy reason I'm telling you any of this, or it beats being in that jam packed ballroom." He half joked, letting every word fall off his chest, Claudia seemed cool, and Vincent was feeling the strange need to talk to someone.

"Vincent Van, I've heard that name somewhere before, but I can't quite place it." She mentioned, "And yeah I would have to agree I couldn't hear myself think!" she agreed.

"That's what I'm saying!" Vincent said with mock astonishment while raising his hands, getting a full laugh from his fast friend. Yep Claudia was indeed cool.

"You know it's a big day tomorrow, as much fun as this is you sure you don't need some sleep?" Claudia wondered, thinking she was ready for some beauty sleep.

"Eh, I guess you're right," he said "I'll go in in a few minutes." he assured her. She went in for a not so restful sleep. Vincent wasn't going to keep his word, but she didn't need to know that little fact, besides Vincent could feel himself slowly edging toward sleep outside in the peace and quiet anyway, the way he was used to sleeping, outside on the concrete.


	4. Chapter 4

_Most epic dream scene ever, based off of my dream, realized it fit the story perfectly. Yes, Alpha Jaune for life, I'll make it fit canon. And the unnamed bully is Cardin if you didn't get it._

Ch. 4 Saving the Arts

Suddenly, Vincent realized he was at his old house where he grew up, it was late at night probably about 3 in the morning, and he was outside looking toward the front door. He heard ominous sounds all around him, howls, snarls, leaves rustling, and worst of all he heard a faint screaming sound.

Vincent turned to see the source of the scream, but all his eyes fell upon were two dark figures, beowolves, one was larger and stood on two feet, the master, and the other was smaller and on all fours, the servant. Both wolves howled in unison to the almost full moon.

Vincent decided he would not back down to these monsters and summoned his own breath for a returning howl, but instead he felt only a high pitched squeal escape him. The wolves heard the weakness of their prey and charged. Vincent was able to dodge their first strike moving to the left, but was caught off guard by the servant getting behind him and forcing his face right into the claws of the master.

Vincent awoke with a gasp. "Whew, it was just a dream." Determining the time to be around 4:30 Vincent decided to quietly sneak into the locker rooms to take the first shower of the day.

"Alright here it is, the big day." Vincent calmed himself in the shower, getting ready for a tough day. He got himself ready, "hat: check, overcoat: check, paint brush: check, shoes: oh no, where are my shoes?" Vincent searched for a few minutes before asking for help. "Hey have you seen my shoes anywhere?" Vincent said to the closest person he could find, some girl with a bow in her hair, wait no this is the girl from yesterday, the Faunus, yeah the bow didn't hide the ears that well, at least not to someone like Vincent who in the right light saw everything, especially when it twitched.

She had her head buried in a book. "Umm, no I haven't seen your shoes." She never brought her head up to even pretend like she cared.

Vincent decided she was a lost cause and tried to find someone else who might help. "Hey have you two seen my shoes anywhere?" he asked this loud and excited girl in pink, and a quiet guy in green.

"Ooh shoes! I love shoes, Ren what if we went shoe shopping today, oh wait we have to be initiated, oh what if we got some shoes after initiation as a celebration!" this girl was loud and to be honest just a bit annoying, and man Vincent thought he was crazy.

"Uh Nora," said Ren "we didn't see his shoes; we've been hanging out with each other all day. Sorry man."

"No it's all right, thanks for letting me know." Vincent was a little disappointed; he just wanted to find his shoes.

"Excuse me sir, have you seen my shoes?" Vincent asked the next guy to come by, some huge guy in fancy armor and a ruthless grin on his face.

"Oh yeah, I saw them." Said this bully of a kid. "They were at the top of the main tower, hanging from the flagpole." He said, barely keeping a straight face.

"Okay, I see." Vincent realized what happened in an instant, and he didn't like it one bit, after all things would be starting soon, he would hate to be late, or worse shoeless.

At the top of the tower Vincent was so close to getting his shoes, mere inches, when he felt his fingers slip, he was about to plummet, he jumped for his shoes. If he dies, he dies with his shoes. His descent began.

Then he had his hand caught through the window by some mysterious man, his face was not seen, but he had white armor, fingerless gloves, and dark blue eyes. As soon as they touched Vincent felt a great power inside of this man waiting to be set free, and that these guys were like brothers from different mothers right away.

"Uh, thanks?" Vincent said scratching his chin, while the mystery man ran off, not willing to be seen.


	5. Chapter 5

_New chapter, may have to slow down soon, but will speed up for Christmas time. As always enjoy and take care._

Ch. 5 the Scream(er)

Vincent found his way to the cliff where the initiation would commence. He got there and saw lots of faces, familiar ones like Claudia, new ones like this girl in sort of red and gold armor, and at the other end of the line of people was the mystery man that saved his life. He also took note of Professor Goodwitch and Professor Ozpin and some cryptic standing platforms, one per initiate. Professor Goodwitch began by setting straight the assignment of teams.

'Oh great, three people to slow me down.' Vincent thought, making sure it was not aloud this time.

"Each of you will be given teammates, today." Professor Goodwitch said bluntly.

Professor Ozpin continued from here saying. "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is within your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Vincent heard many of the initiates voice their disbelief of how partners were to be formed. One of the loudest among these was that girl in the red cloak practically shouting "What!"

Vincent didn't really like what he heard, "I have to hang out with whoever I see first for four years?" Vincent asked under his breath. "What's next, do we all have to gather around a campfire and sing songs?"

"After you've partnered up head to the northern end of the forest… You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics, each pair must choose one and return to the cliff, we will guard your item, as well as your standing and grade you appropriately, are there any questions?" Ozpin asked.

"So are campfire songs out of the question?" Vincent joked to himself.

"Yeah, um, Sir?" the mysterious man asked in a shaky voice. Vincent thought this version of the mysterious man felt much less sure of himself, than he did back at the top of the tower.

"Good, now take your positions." Said Ozpin, Vincent could not quite tell if he missed the question, or refused to acknowledge it.

Vincent immediately took his position, as he was the first up to fly. Suddenly Vincent was much higher up than he was moments before. It was beautiful up in the sky over the forest, with mountains on the horizon, Vincent took it all in, every tree, every clearing, "I guess that's the temple." Vincent said taking in the sight of an old stone construction with what appeared to be black and white um chess pieces.

As for Vincent's landing strategy it was simple, don't die. To be more specific, Vincent quickly airbrushed a makeshift parachute, and tried to guide it to the northern part of the forest. As soon as he landed Vincent began walking north. "If I meet up with the next fastest person as me I bet they'll be pretty decent at what they do." Vincent logically stated, if he was forced to be friends, he was hoping they would at least be good. Heading north he could hear lots of people behind him making lots of ruckus, running, panting, snarling, arguing, wait a minute, 'doth I heareth thy mystery savior screaming thy lungs out?' Vincent joked.

Vincent was just entering a clearing of decent size when he heard behind him a strange mix of rolling tires and oinking. He turned to see a veritable horde of boarbatusks. "Oh great my first challenge, and all I get are some pigs." Vincent lamented, as he went in for the first strike using his brush to slap the pig to the side stopping its momentum. Then he trapped two in some special sticky paint. A couple of them decided a charging line would be sufficient to take down this mad painter, it wasn't as Vincent quickly painted out a large crack in the ground with one stroke of his hand engulfing most of the boarbatusks.

By this point, Vincent could feel his aura being used up fighting with all this paint, so Vincent decided to fully extend his paint brush to its melee size, a large two handed paint brush comparable to a samurai sword named Brushido. He began whacking and smacking all that remained in front of him, culminating in a final overhead assault on the last pig standing, when before Vincent could hit it, they were both flung back by some powerful shouting and loud and very obnoxious rock music.

Vincent looked up to see who had messed up his fighting stride only to see a buff, dark skinned, long blond frizzy haired, antlered, guitar or rather axe toting punk wearing a dark green leather jacket, dark jeans, and a white sleeveless tank top with a huge top hat symbol across the middle. Vincent looked straight into his light gold eyes.

"Who are you?" Vincent asked partially out of shock and partially out of outrage that this Faunus stole his thunder.

"Babes call me 'The Dude' but you can call me 'Lash'." The Dude, I mean Lash said.


	6. Chapter 6

_Claudia's perspective, not much else to say, and as always take care._

Ch. 6 Starry, Starry Morning

Claudia flew through the sky with the wind in her ears and strands of hair all over her face, her lightweight armor barely slowing her down, and her exposed arms revealing her fairly renowned tattoo symbol, a seven sided star known as Twinkle.

"Wait, I have a brilliant idea!" Claudia exclaimed as she was dropping down straight from the sky like a shooting star. She gripped her gauntlet arm, readying for the shot, BOOM! Her wrist exploded flying a huge morning star on a chain out into the trees, grappling onto the biggest one in sight, Claudia held on tight as the chain cord got tighter and tighter as it swirled around the tree, like a tetherball before, with one powerful pull, Claudia imploded the whole tree with her sheer strength, well considering her semblance gave her superhuman strength, you know what never mind for now. Claudia then retracted her Morningstar of death, appropriately named Shining Star.

Running as fast as she could, Claudia ran straight in front of her not caring what, if anything got in her way; she was here to win. As she ran Claudia got a bit lost in her thoughts saying out loud people that would be cool to team up with, "Well, let's see I saw Pyrrha, if she remembers me, we could be great together, or that Yang girl, they seemed like they had a lot in common, I guess that Arc guy should have some talent, well there's always Vincent he seemed like there's a lot going on in his head, anyone but that annoying little brat Vladula or whatever, heck I'd take that Schnee girl over her.

Claudia thought back to yesterday when Claudia decided to get to know her fellow initiates/future competition, though she started off well meeting Ruby and Yang the quirky sister combo, she quickly got worried that everybody she met either didn't care about her or didn't want to talk to her. All hope was lost when she tried to introduce herself to that dumb demon girl Vladlina, "Hi I'm Claudia Augusta, what's your name?" she politely asked the other female.

"Shut your trap, or I swear I'll rip it off your face, and feed it to a Beowolf! I am sick and tired of you going around to every single person, 'Hi I'm Claudia Augusta, what's your name, what's your preferred fighting style, what weapon do you use, what do you think of the compet… I mean other students.' Just leave us alone, and get back to your day of lifting train cars and getting into bar fights with armies of punching bags you try-hard." Vladlina exploded with rage, and some rather comical voice acting.

"How dare you talk to me like that you spoiled little princess, why don't you go back to worrying about having zits, and if boys like you. Man, you must have some real daddy issues." Claudia retaliated.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy ladies, there's plenty of 'The Dude' for both of you." A blond punk said, interrupting the fight that was about to break out.

"Get out of here pretty boy, unless you want to get sliced open and peeled alive!" Vladlina shrieked, ready to kill the next person who insulted her.

"Is everything all right here?" Professor Goodwitch questioned sternly from behind Vladlina.

"Yes Professor, in fact, I was just leaving." Claudia said ready to race out of the situation. Later that night Claudia felt bad about not really making any real friends after all her hard work and found it hard to sleep, so she went outside for some fresh air, when all of a sudden she was pried from her thoughts by some mystery guy she never met that day feet away from her commanding himself to pay attention. Claudia turned to see a young man, not exactly clean but well dressed in a brown overcoat, a once nice looking navy blue button up shirt, a straw hat, the start of a beard, and some very red cheeks which although she'll never admit to, kind of liked on him, he wore them well.

Before Claudia realized it, she pulled herself outside of her thoughts within thoughts to not run head first into this girl watching her in horror as they neared each other. Claudia stopped and saw some eyes, dark and cold eyes, like stones, they were a strange blend of green and gold that belonged only to one person, Vladlina Drake.

"NO! Please! Anyone but you!" Both girls pleaded futilely as their fates were sealed to be teammates for years to come.

"Well, I guess we're partners now, let's go get that relic and get this over with." Claudia begrudgingly reasoned with her teammate.


	7. Chapter 7

_The team has been formed but is left nameless, stay tuned for more, and take care._

Ch. 7 the Black Knights

Okay, Vincent cannot take this anymore, 90 seconds in to being teammates with tall, dark, and horny or antlery to be more precise Vincent learned that Lash played in concert with both The Achieve Men and The Williams', he has been training for 10 years, killed 40, scratch that 41 grimm, and to top it all off has made out with 84 women.

At this point Vincent thought it was a good idea to try to pick up the pace of their walk as they moved through the forest.

"Hey where ya goin buddy?" Lash asked somewhat sarcastically.

"I'm going to get this initiation over with." Vincent replied with a bit of frustration in his voice.

"Don't you need your partner, and like two more people before we can be done?" Lash reminded the artist.

"Well yeah, I mean, I guess so," Vincent tried fruitlessly to argue with the Faunus's words.

"Wait, Quiet… did you hear that?" Lash interrogated, in a very serious tone.

Vincent preoccupied with talking, keeping himself calm, and a ringing in his ears had actually missed something. "No, I'm not a Faunus remember, and you did blast me in the face with really loud rock music and screaming." Vincent struggled to convey that he had not heard this unspecified noise.

"It sounds like shouting… they're this way!" Lash yelped while dashing off into the woods in the direction of this noise that Vincent could not hear.

"Hold on Lash, whose 'they' and why are 'they' shouting?" Vincent loudly questioned following the prancing stag.

"Let's just say 'they' are some lovely ladies, and that whatever these foxy mamas are shouting about, it is not good." Lash explained in a cryptic rush. Vincent followed Lash into a thick layer of brush, but what he saw when he came out the other side, he will never forget.

"No, Vladlina you're doing it all wrong! I said I was going to hit it high, and you go low!" Claudia scolded her new partner.

"I saw an opening and I was about to take it if you hadn't gotten in my way." Vladlina stated, while using her two large knives, Abaddon and Uriel, to slash open the neck of the Ursa they were fighting, Vincent noted that Vladlina had replaced her skirt for a cape, and the midsection of her body had six identical symbols of a bat wing, and no Vincent did not notice it like that, he doesn't see Vladlina in that way, plus he's a gentleman.

"Oh man not you, not now," Claudia pleaded when she saw Lash, "Wait, Vincent… you don't mean you and… really?" Claudia could never imagine the two guys getting along; they seemed almost as mismatched as Vladlina and her.

"So… what brings you to this part of the woods?" Lash asked the girls, what a cheesy pick up line. "We never properly introduced each other earlier; you may call me 'The Dude.'"

"No thanks 'deer-ie,' it was nice to meet you but we really must be going." Claudia said. "Right, Vladlina?"

"Vladlina nice to meet you, if 'The Dude' doesn't suit you, you may call me Lash." Lash said sounding much more interested in Vladlina than Claudia.

"No, Lash, it was my pleasure to meet you. Although we really should get out of here." Vladlina said, it was formal, but sounded very sincere.

"Come on guys, the temple is this way." Vincent gestured to the right of him, ready to get the pleasantries over with.

"What do you mean, the temple is 'that a way.'" Lash said while pointing directly in front of him.

"Um, I'm pretty sure I'm right." Vincent said using the last of his patience to try and nicely correct Lash.

"No dude, it is this way." Lash said, while walking forward toward his goal.

"Big man says it's this way, why don't we all follow him, he clearly knows what he's doing." Vincent mocked the punk, hoping that they would get to have it out with each other.

"You got a problem man, take the pill, it is this way, right ladies?" Lash asked them, so that they could have their say.

"I hate to say it, but he is right Vincent." Claudia said.

"Yeah, um it should be just over here." Vladlina agreed.

Vincent was speechless; he usually had this kind of stuff together, what is this forest, some crazy mind game torture chamber. Vincent decided they had to be right and followed them a few yards, passed through another area of dense bushes, and into a large clearing with lots of chess pieces and an old temple.

"Well I guess we're here then." Vladlina and Lash said at almost the same time, which made things kind of awkward for a few seconds.

"What chess piece do you want?" Vincent asked Lash, a sort of peace offering to say that he was wrong about the directions.

"Are you gonna let me choose? Aw thanks man…" Lash said excitedly, while reaching for a black knight. "This looks awesome, wouldn't you guys agree?" Lash asked the three people around him.

"Yeah I do, hey Claudia let's get one too." Vladlina said picking up the other knight.

"It's ok I guess, parts of it I don't like so much…" Claudia began looking at the knight, moving her eyes over Lash, and landing on Vincent. "…and parts of it I do."

Claudia was unable to finish her thought however, because just then all hell broke loose around them as the other teams, along with droves of monsters were enclosing all around them.


	8. Chapter 8

_Okay, don't give me crap about the team name, it's hard when you start with the individual character names, also I think I finally figured out Vladlina's character, and last but not least, take care._

Ch. 8 Unwieldy as Day and Night

The new team began making their way back to the cliffs. They were almost there when they stopped, hearing a quiet snarling all around them.

"Uh oh, Beowolf ambush." Lash said pulling his guitar, Dusty, off his back.

"Oh man, not beowolves, anything but beowolves." Vincent pleaded quietly, Vincent isn't afraid of much, but since he was little, beowolves were one of them.

The first few creatures appeared in front of the team, blocking their path, then even more appeared on either side of them, and finally three behind them, but the three to the rear were larger, alpha beowolves.

"Alright guys, I'm thinking I'll take the ones in front, Claudia, you go right, Vladlina go left, and Lash holds off the alphas until we regroup, sounds good to everyone." Vincent planned, just so he would not have to face as many.

Lash was the first to agree, by angling Dusty, and laying down a hail of dust bullets from his mini gun end of Dusty.

"Sounds good." Claudia said as she shot off Shining Star, destroying two beowolves at once.

"Why does everyone else get to give orders but me?" Vladlina asked as she rushed into the fray with nothing but Abaddon and Uriel, one was a type of Bowie knife, and the other a sort of cross between a switchblade and a butterfly knife, although they both could morph into crazy one-handed semi auto crossbows that shot dust bullets.

'Okay Vincent…' Vincent thought to himself, 'I can do this I just have to stay calm, breathe, and…'

"Oh no!" The beowolves were already on him. Vincent dodged to the left, he pulled out Brushido, he went in for a blind swipe, felt his weapon hit something hard, he got one. About five more to go, Vincent charged the next one, getting knocked off his feet, but recovering quickly, taking out his second one. For his third trick, Vincent would keep his enemy at bay, and strike with his paint, without taking time to be creative Vincent made an X shape, and waved it at fast speed into the next beowolf, direct hit. Vincent may be able to do this after all. But then, both numbers four and five decided go out blazing together, coming at Vincent from both sides, he summersaulted out of their way, they collided with each other, but were still gunning for the artist. Vincent thought he was done for, when all of a sudden a huge flailing Morningstar came flying through the air, grappling onto one beowolf, and slamming it down on top of the other.

"Uh, thank you." Vincent said, still startled.

"Come on Vincent, you can do it!" Claudia supportively cheered. "Get the last one! Behind You!"

Vincent turned, then he was downed the beowolf hovering over him, it went in for a bite, Vincent quickly blocked with his brush, the two grappled in a scary game of tug of war, until somehow the sword was released just enough to be in prime position to slice off the head of the beowolf.

Vincent was free to get up and survey his surroundings. Lash and Vladlina were occupying the alpha beowolves, and Claudia had likewise just finished killing her last opponent. The four of them regrouped as the three alphas stood at the ready, both groups staring each other down, neither willing to make the first move.

"Okay Vincent, got any more bright ideas?" Lash asked.

"Wait, I got it!" Vincent realized. "Yeah, follow my lead Vladlina, Claudia lasso up, and Lash… let loose!

Vincent and Vladlina came barreling at the beowolves, and the wolves came barreling back. They were locked in fierce close combat, then Claudia using Shining Star, lassoed all three at the same time. This is where Lash came 'Lashing down' on the subdued foes, using Dusty like a huge battle axe, and using his annoying supersonic shout, quite literally ripped all three beowolves to pieces.

Vincent couldn't help but feel in awe of himself, and his team, to someone else they were just beowolves, but to him it was a great challenge defeated.

Later, back at Beacon, The team was up on stage ready to be congratulated.

Professor Ozpin was naming everyone off, "Vincent Van, Vladlina Drake, Lash Fonzellini, and Claudia Augusta. The four of you retrieved the Black Knight pieces, from now on you will be known as Team Unwieldy, led by Vincent Van."

As this was said all four of their pictures and first initials were put up on the big screen, VVLC.


	9. Chapter 9

_And now back to your regularly scheduled reading of "Unwieldy Hills 01209" not much else to say except for soap opera level drama and as always take care._

Ch. 9 Perfect Copy

"First day of class!" Vincent said excitedly waking up everyone else in his dorm. "No way am I letting anyone sleep in to be late!"

To this rude awakening, Vladlina threw a knife at Vincent, barely missing his face, Claudia jumped out of bed holding what appeared to be a teddy bear, and Lash yawned and mumbled something about five more minutes.

Despite the morning hassles, Vincent was able to get his whole team ready for their first class on time. All of them in their school uniforms, it was clear Lash was not enjoying his, and Vincent didn't really either until he put on his familiar straw hat.

"Who do we have first?" Claudia asked Vincent.

"It says his name is: Professor Port." Vincent answered.

"He sounds like my type of guy!" Lash said upbeat.

Once they walked into class however, Lash found out that Professor Port was not his type of guy anymore, if he ever was.

Class went by slowly, the Professor blabbering on about the days of his youth protecting his village from beowolves and smelling like cabbage. By the end of class Port asked his unenthusiastic audience if there was a true huntsman or huntress among them, to this Vincent slunk down in his chair and slowly scratched his face.

You see, Vincent was great at what he did, even though he had never gone to a fighting school, and certainly wouldn't fall in the good graces of any of the teachers, so Vincent did what he was good at, creating, he forged a copy of transcripts, making a perfect copy, and sent it in to be exactly where he wanted to go, Beacon.

Anyway, that heiress girl raised her hand, and Professor told us all as class ended that she would be fighting a creature of grimm.

After class, Vincent went off to go think about himself and being a huntsman, when he turned a corner, and out of nowhere Professor Ozpin was right in his way.

"Why, hello there Vincent Van." The Professor said in a friendly yet intimidating tone.

"Um, hello Professor." Vincent replied, a little scared being one to one with the headmaster of the school.

"What's the matter Vincent? Feeling unworthy of going to a school for real hunters?" Ozpin said, practically reading Vincent's mind.

"How did you…?" Vincent started.

"Did you really think you could slip in forged transcripts without me noticing?" Ozpin asked rhetorically.

"Well, I… maybe, I just thought that…" Vincent tried to respond.

"What did you think Vincent, did you think that that is all you are, a 'Perfect Copy', something seemingly great, but really just a bunch of lies?" Ozpin asked.

"No," Vincent answered straight up, "I'm also a broken paintbrush, something to be cast aside and forgotten once there is no more need for me. I'm also a painting, something that catches your attention, a creation of beauty from a mind that could have either been blessed or cursed, but is quickly perceived to be useless and valueless." Vincent unleashed all his pent up feelings, he felt a single tear escape his eye.

"But you're not Vincent, you are so much more." Ozpin assured the young man. "Why, the fact that you had the guts to try, and survive initiation shows how good you really are, besides it's only the first day. And I know why you do it, even if you don't, you don't seek fame and fortune, and you don't have a chip on your shoulder, you don't do it for glory or vengeance, you do it because you know it is right."

"Wait, if you knew all this stuff about me, then why am I the team leader?" Vincent asked.

"You have been tasked with a very difficult mission, it is your duty to take your teammates, unwieldy as they may be, and get them to work together for the sake of Vale and the whole of Remnant. Vincent, there will come a day when you will fall or rise, but either way, you will not do it alone." Ozpin foretold.

"I see." Vincent said, not sure if he really saw the entire message, but got the gist.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I have other students with issues and fates I have to shine wisdom upon." Ozpin said, with a small chuckle.


	10. Chapter 10

_Backstory time! This is Vladlina Drake's. Please, take care._

Ch. 10 Miss Drake and The Doc

Professor Ozpin before he left Vincent had given him a very wonderful idea for team bonding, so that day during their study hall Vincent gathered up his team.

"We're going to do WHAT!?" Claudia asked very surprised.

"We're going to grow closer together… as a team." Vincent answered. As it turns out, leaving out that last part that first time to someone of the opposite gender can get a bit awkward.

"Okay, we're all here," Vincent said, "So uh, I was thinking we could uh; get to know each other better. In fact, I'll start: My name is Vincent Van, and I have an irrational fear of beowolves."

"Whoa really? Well I guess it makes sense you looked extra weird during that fight with them." Lash pointed out.

"Yeah, I've had it since I was pretty young, I can't really remember why though." Vincent stated.

"Well, someone else want to go, how about you Vladlina?" Vincent asked Vladlina, who was looking down at the ground in a thousand yard stare.

"Hey Vladlina, you there?" Lash asked.

Vladlina began. "Huh? Oh sorry." Vladlina continued. "No, I don't think that's a very good idea." Vladlina said, trying to brush it off.

"Why not?" Claudia asked.

"Because it's personal." Vladlina said, her voice slightly rising.

"Um, well just say what you feel comfortable with." Vincent assured her.

"Ok, if you insist." Vladlina relented. "My name is Vladlina Drake, and I'm wanted by the police."

"You're what!" Vincent and Claudia interjected at the same time.

"I knew it!" Lash said, almost cheering.

"You see, back in my kingdom of Vacuo, I'm kind of the daughter of the Chief Law keeper." Vladlina began. "I was sort of pushed around as a kid by my trainers, sort of a parental test. Until one day I had had enough and pushed back at them, I even gave one a broken rib."

She continued. "After that I became a lot rougher and harder every time I trained, and I started getting quieter and less social, unless I was in one of my 'mood swings.'"

"Let me remind you that being a Chief Law keeper makes you a member of the court. And my father had lots of money, but never enough time." Vladlina stated "So after this started becoming a problem, my father found the greatest psychiatrist in the area, Doctor Newton Holliday, although he insisted on calling him Doc."

"I had regular therapy sessions with him, he seemed normal, boy was I wrong." Vladlina explained. "About three weeks ago I walked in for a session like normal, but something was wrong. He had a gun in one hand, some piece of paper in the other, and a wild look in his eyes." Suddenly Vladlina flashed back to the memory.

"Oh why hello there Vladlina, I didn't see you there." Doc said in his usual voice, strangely calm for the circumstances.

"Doc what are you doing?" Vladlina asked.

"Oh, she wants to know what I'm doing does she? Oh, but she can't know, not yet. 'Shh' the reveal must be done at the right time." He said in a higher pitched voice that was really creepy.

"What's with the gun, are you robbing me?" Vladlina said, while connecting the dots.

"Come here Vladlina." Doc commanded, raising his gun to her face.

Vladlina panicked her training and rage kicked in creating a violent storm of well violence. Vladlina explained in vivid detail how she had an out of body experience where she drew and threw both of her knives at the Doc, one slicing his face in between his left cheek and eye, partially grazing both and the other hitting his midsection, just under his ribcage, he quickly began losing a lot of blood. He was also screaming in pain in his high pitched voice.

Vladlina knew right away that she would be hunted down for her actions, worse it would be by her own father, so she decided to grab what she could, her knives, some lien, and the mystery paper the Doc had been looking for. She stowed away on a ship headed for Vale, to go where she had secretly tried getting into and finally succeeded, Beacon Academy.


	11. Chapter 11

_Claudia's turn. It is short, but I hope you appreciate her as much as I do now. And for goodness sake, take care._

Ch. 11 Sins of The Father

"Well, that was heavy." Lash pointed out. "So I guess that puts Claudia up next, right guys?"

"What, I, Um, I, Ok." Claudia gave in, after seeing Vincent's look.

"Here it goes…" Claudia was ready to let it go. "My name is Claudia Augusta and I am afraid of fire."

"Oh, that's not so bad." Vincent said innocently, he had no idea what she could mean.

"You see, my dad is a madman. He's not organized like Georgio, not driven like David, not crafty like Cinder, and not even trying to hide it like Roman Torchwick. He just liked things to burn, to go up in smoke, to exist one moment, and then get drowned in flames the next." Claudia described.

Then she began to set up how this came to be. "Coming from a long line of dust shop owners, Neroy Augusta had been trained to be a huntsman, when he was rejected for undisclosed reasons he was shattered. Most days he could get out of bed in the morning and do his job, but I could tell the brilliant and burning light was lost inside of him, except for when he cut loose to light things up."

At this point Claudia gripped herself, as if to protect her body. "Sure it started small, but eventually he showed clear signs of mental disorder; he yelled at customers, set his house and store on fire multiple times, and even branded his mark on the backs of his children so they would never forget their 'loving' father. But the worst thing he ever did, the thing that made Claudia shutter and despise her father more than anyone else in all of Vale is what happened about six months ago."

Claudia was enjoying a Saturday night with her mom at their house, when Neroy walked in with loads of fire dust. "Hey dad? Just put the dust down, it's ok." Claudia tried to reason with her dad.

"I'm truly sorry Claudia, but it has to be this way." He responded. Then he threw the dust all over the house, it quickly caught aflame. Claudia and her mother made a break for the door, but Neroy stopped them, he threw his wife into the flames, and made Claudia watch her burn. Before he knocked Claudia unconscious he whispered to her "trust me darling, it's all part of the plan."

"After that, I was taken to a foster home, and lived there until I got accepted to Beacon, the place I was trained to go to, to do it for my Father, but instead, I ended up going for my mother." Claudia explained.

"That's why I'm afraid, and why I always carry my mother's water dust-crystal with me." Claudia finished.

"Oh my…" Vincent began.

Lash spoke up again. "Hey guys, I know that was big and all, and as much as I hate class, we're gonna be late for History."


	12. Chapter 12

_Oh man, totally different backstory with even more OCs, this is getting CRAZY RIGHT! Lash story is next, and don't worry all questions will be revealed in time, and until that time, take care._

Ch. 12 Grimm History Lesson

Vincent was almost late to his next class after listening to his team's harrowing stories.

"Today class, we will go over one of the oldest legends known, the story of GRIM, the first team of huntsmen in history, the founders of Beacon, and the discoverers of Dust." Professor Oobleck began.

"The team consisted of the leader Grimwold Grant, Rubius Rose, Ignatius Arc, and the Magnificent Magnus Van. I believe we have some of the descendants of the original team in class with us today, Mr. Jaune Arc, Miss Ruby Rose, and Mr. Vincent Van." Professor Oobleck signaled for the students to rise. "I hope you are aware class, that all three descendants here today are the leaders of their respective teams, which is no coincidence, very strong blood runs through all of their veins." Oobleck told. "Thank you, you may be seated." Oobleck said.

'Interesting, the mystery man is named Jaune, and we are sort of relatives distantly, not to mention he is his team's leader.' Vincent quickly thought in his head.

"If you are unfamiliar with the story," Oobleck began again, "It goes like this."

"Long ago there was a man who had two souls, one good, and one evil. The man tried to separate his evil from his good, but there were unforeseen complications, the soul of evil manifested itself into a creature, a great monster said to have the speed of a boarbatusk, the strength of an ursa, the stealth of a king taijitsu, the armor of a deathstalker, the wings of a nevermore, and the ferocity of a beowolf. This first creature was simply called Grimm because it was defeated by GRIM and is the creator of all creatures of Grimm." Oobleck continued. "The story leads us to believe that the creature was defeated when the same power that created the beast was used on Magnus Van, destroying his soul, but making his body immortal tying their fates together. Legend has it that in the fighting Grimwold died, Ignatius rallied an army, Rubius took up the helm of Team Leader and was the first to use dust as a weapon, and Magnus Van defeated the monster in one on one combat, ending when a dark hole, only remembered as the darkness swallowed up Grimm and Magnus.

We know this to be a fictional story however, because we know that one cannot live without a soul, and because no one can live forever." Oobleck said staring straight at Vincent.

After those parting words, class ended. "Wow that story kept my interest the whole time." Vincent whispered to himself.

"Well that was a scary class period." Lash blurted out as the team left to go get some food. "I better go drown my fear in chocolate cake."

"Oh that reminds me, Lash; we never heard your story." Vincent stated as if in passing.


	13. Chapter 13

_BOOM! Didn't see that coming. Seriously though, this story is getting epic. I am returning to the canon soon, but for now more backstory. As always, take care._

Ch. 13 Leader of the Lost

During their meal, Team VVLC noticed a television playing the news.

"In today's top story, Georgio Ramirez Washingtoni head of the radical anti-Faunus racist group 'The Black Claw' has resurfaced from almost nine years of hiding to declare a message. The newscast went to a video from none other than a man in a black suit, Mr. Washingtoni.

"Greetings and bienvenue, Georgio 'Toni' at your service. I bring a message to all of my adversaries in The White Fang and to all so called 'supporters' of Faunus rights, The Black Claw and I have gathered our forces waiting to strike, it seems though that one still stands against us Mr. Lash Fonzellini, son of Eduardo Fonzellini, I must inform the young Faunus that if he does not turn himself into our subjugation, Mr. Lash will have to watch many Faunus and people alike get hurt in his name, until he has surrendered. Tonight, I would like to start with this cute little mutt, what was his name again, Robert I believe.

The screen turned to reveal an already bloody old man that had droopy dog ears; he looked like he once had been healthy, but after maybe weeks of being trapped and tortured by The Black Claw had been reduced to almost bones.

"You see, Robert here was once a close family friend and advisor to the original wolf of white fang, you remember don't you Lash? Well anyway, the old mutt never gave up hope that you would save the Faunus, but I'll just have to crush his dream since you're not here to save him. As Georgio said this last part, he picked up a very large and sharp spear weapon with a type of curved blade on the top, resembling a Guandao. Then the screen went dark, the news team came back online, "we're sorry but the rest of the footage is too graphic to continue." The reporter said.

"In other news researchers are studying the strange happenings on the shattered moon, possible phenomena have been going on including the moon breaking faster than calculated, the increasing populations of grimm, and the weather rapidly changing." Then the television was turned off.

"So Lash, your story would be good to know now." Vincent gently coaxed his teammate.

"Well yeah, okay, here it goes." Lash started. "My name is Lash Fonzellini and my father is Eduardo Fonzellini, The first leader of the White Fang."

"Wow!" Claudia busted out.

"Hogh!" Vladlina gasped.

"Hmm." Vincent contemplated.

"If you're done with the moment of realization sounds I would like to continue." Lash voiced his irritation. "Anyway, I would say ten years ago when I was still pretty little, my house was the gathering site of many prominent and wealthy people, but was secretly also a meeting place for dangerous and evil people on the same night."

"If you didn't know back then the White Fang wasn't a group of extremists, they were average 'Faunus' Joes like you or me." Lash set up the stage. "That night, my father had held a charity banquet for Faunus rights. But that was also the night some shady people came with an alternative business deal for my father."

"It all started when my mother, Samantha, a doe Faunus, told me I should go socialize with the young guests, the other children of the rich and famous." Lash explained. "I met a few people, if I remember correctly there was Weiss Schnee, Jaune Arc, you know Vladlina you might have been there, and Vincent… I remember your parents there, but you weren't." Lash said, staring directly into Vincent's soft brown eyes.

"Lash, you met my parents?" Vincent asked, thinking back to the days of when he had his parents around.

"Uh yeah, but that's not the point." Lash continued as though he had not been interrupted. "Somehow we got the idea to play hide and seek, naturally it was my house so I knew all the good hiding spots. I climbed into an air vent, but accidentally got too far in; I ended up right next to the vent that connects my father's private office, where he was holding a meeting with some scary looking people." Lash thought back to the conversation.

"So you are suggesting that we pool our resources, creating a 'master plan', for what purpose again?" Eduardo asked the woman in a red dress, who just by the way she stood there had evil mastermind written all over her.

"Well for you it would allow you to free your people Mr. Fonzellini. For Georgio he gets to have what he's always wanted, chaos and a place away from the Faunus, for the Doc, he gets knowledge, for Roman Torchwick, he gets what he can't have power, and for the young fellows that lost everything like young Neroy over here, they get vengeance." The Masterminding woman said, practically enchanting everyone in the room including 'Uncle' David Shepherd, Eduardo's second in command. Everyone except Eduardo.

"That is a fine promise. One I think, that is too good to be true." Eduardo declined politely, although twitching his white wolf ears, signaling his discontent. "Besides, the White Fang is supposed to be a symbol of hope and goodness, whether you are of Faunus descent or not. So the answer is no. Neither I nor the White Fang will have any part in your 'League of Harmony.'" As the great white wolf said this, he placed his hand on his weapons on his desk, the League got the message and left.

Then Lash flew through his memories of after that night, how over the next five years, his father became more and more anxious and concerned about safety, until he finally stepped down as leader, and had David replace him, personally. That was when the White Fang developed its reputation for bloodshed and hate.

"I would say we're all closer as a team now, wouldn't you all agree?" Vincent asked his team rhetorically. He was feeling a strong sense of guilt however, because although he let his team know some information about him, he had left so much out. And what was this 'League of Harmony' and why did it send shivers up Vincent's spine.


	14. Chapter 14

_Get it? Because competition brackets. Oh never mind, and also merry Christmas and take care._

Ch. 14 Beacon Madness

A few weeks later in combat practice class, Professor Goodwitch was pairing up all the students to fight one another for some duels in preparation for the Vale tournament only a few months away. "For our first matchup we have Vincent Van and Jaune Arc.

"Ooh, this ought a be good." Claudia whispered to the people around her, which Vincent easily picked up.

Vincent got himself prepared, he extended Brushido out to its full size, and stood with feet apart waiting for the signal to start, as Jaune prepared by pulling out his straight edged sword out of his shielth (a shield that retracts into a sheath for easy storage.)

This was only a duel, and a practice one at that, so Vincent thought it would be fairly safe and even easy fighting the legendary ancestor of Ignatius Arc. Just then Professor Goodwitch gave the signal. He rushed his opponent head on, who blocked his overhead strike with his unbreakable family shield with ease. Responding to this first strike, Jaune swiped his sword across Vincent's position. Vincent narrowly avoided the hardy strike by leaning back quickly, his back hit the ground, but he thought fast and tripped up the Knight. Vincent got up a smidgen faster than Jaune, without the cumbersome armor and shield, which was all he thought he needed, he went for a side slash, but was intercepted by Jaune's fast sword hand, knocking Brushido out of Vincent's hands. Then all Jaune had to do was put his sword to Vincent's exposed chest, and obviously Vincent surrendered. Vincent made a mental note not to underestimate Jaune ever again, no matter how goofy he acted.

After that the guy in green, Ren and the bully whose name was Cardin had a short fight, ending with Cardin slamming Ren across the elevated fighting arena with his mace. Meaning Cardin and Jaune would have to fight each other for round two.

Then it was Lash's turn against Blake, the girl with the bow in her hair, against good old Lash. Sadly for Lash, it was pretty one sided, Dusty was limited to only using melee attacks, and since it is hard to hit a target that is much faster than you with a guitar, you don't happen to get very lucky. He did put up a good fight and got one really good shot on her, which made it look like he won, until Blake surprised him with a flip behind him, and tied him up with the whip part of her ridiculously complex sword inside of a sword that is also a whip and gun weapon.

Claudia beat her first opponent, Cardin friend number 1. The fight between Weiss/Cardin friend number 2 was won because of Weiss's extensive training and attention to detail, and Ruby/Cardin friend number 3 ended when 3 just purely overpowered the teenage girl that was two years younger than everyone there. Both ended up being fairly uneventful.

Then it was up to Vladlina to defeat Nora, the loud girl in pink, who coincidentally used a huge Warhammer as a weapon. Yet speed proved to be just a bit better than power, when Nora misjudged her swing, allowing Vladlina to glide in under her and hold her knife right up to Nora's jugular. Nora only laughed and said, "Oh, you got me! We should have a rematch later, even though we can't now because I just lost. 'Obviously.'"

That left only the best duel of that day, a fight between the blond brawler Yang, and the world renowned warrior Pyrrha.

Yang started off strong using her explosive shot-gauntlets to speed up her first punching strike, which was blocked by Pyrrha's round shield, it was Pyrrha's turn and she wasn't going to waste it, using her sword, she quickly knocked Yang's other fisted gauntlet out of the danger zone, and threw her back with her shield. Yang hopped back up, and attempted a similar attack, with one minor detail change; she feigned the punch to the shield, and instead tried ducking under it. Pyrrha wasn't world renowned for being gullible though. She saw through the ruse just in time to knock the blonde down to the ground, Pyrrha then put her sword down to the back of Yang's neck, ending round one.

Thus the competition bracket for round two was setup, Cardin vs. Jaune, Blake vs. Vladlina, Claudia vs. Weiss, and Pyrrha vs. friend 3.


	15. Chapter 15

_Round two! Merry Christmas and take care!_

Ch. 15 One on One

Today was round two, and this time we would go in the opposite order of the bracket, making Pyrrha vs. 3 the first match of the day. The fight lasted about 12 seconds, which was like twice as long as everyone thought number 3 would last.

Onto the second fight, Claudia vs. Weiss. This matchup seemed more even, two highly practiced warriors, with two very scary weapons. Weiss drew her fencing blade, Myrtenaster, as Claudia let Shining Star hang from her gauntlet. The Professor gave the signal to begin.

Suddenly Weiss charged Claudia's standing, Claudia had to react quickly and all she could do was jump straight up, Weiss used this to her advantage, using her built up speed to also jump very high, and striking at her from above. This sent Claudia flying towards the ground. Once Claudia recovered her composure and standing however it went a different way, Claudia then setup her finishing move, Claudia swung her spiked ball on a chain in circles, building up momentum, until she released it at the ice princess. Weiss blocked it with her sword with relative ease, until Shining Star wrapped itself around the sword, allowing Claudia to pry it from Weiss's hand. That's game.

Vladlina vs. Blake was also a fairly interesting match, both opponents proved equally fast and dangerous with their weapons, although bringing a knife to a sword fight, Vladlina finally lost.

This left only one match for that day, Jaune vs. Cardin. Jaune started off strong by blocking Cardin's first strikes. The battle quickly turned south when Jaune began getting winded, using his aura up. Jaune realizing his desperation went in for an offensive strategy. Cardin easily knocked the knight around, making Jaune drop his shield. Jaune went in for one last attack, Cardin blocked it, the two were locked in a battle of strength until Cardin kicked Jaune, incapacitating him, and ending the match.

After this Professor Goodwitch explained to the class how when tired, they should move to a more defensive strategy. This left round three, Cardin vs. Blake, and Claudia vs. Pyrrha.

That day at lunch, Vincent noticed Cardin and his team bullying this one Faunus girl, and he heard conversations about Cardin's less than friendly methods of brightening up his day. One of the most interesting was one he heard between Teams RWBY and JNPR, where Nora suggested that they break his legs.

A few days later, in history class, Vincent went over the history of the Faunus War, a war fought relatively recently between humans and Faunus. The turning point in the war was commonly believed to be the battle at Fort Castle. Professor Oobleck asked why the Faunus had the clear advantage, and though both Jaune and Cardin, came up with brilliant reasons why, binoculars, and the ease of training animals over soldiers, respectively.

Pyrrha ended up giving the correct answer. In which, an inexperienced general tried to ambush the Faunus at night, but forgot that the Faunus are known to have nearly perfect vision in the dark, and was quickly outmatched. Then the Professor told both Jaune and Cardin, to meet him after class for an extra assignment.

After that Oobleck talked about when the peace treaty was signed, the White Fang was created, to help protect Faunus rights, but recently were forced into taking violent action against the ignorance of humanity.

Later that evening, while Vincent was walking the halls, he heard a conversation between two people, it sounded like it was coming from the roof. He heard one voice that was distinctly Jaune's, and another voice of some girl, maybe Pyrrha.

Vincent heard the girl offer to train Jaune up on the roof, to which Jaune simply asked if she thought he needed help. She then went on to talk about how Jaune even being at Beacon speaks volumes of what he can do. Jaune simply retorted with "you're wrong." Jaune then explained how he wasn't really accepted into Beacon, he got his hands on some fake transcripts, and he lied. When asked why all he could answer was that it's what he's always dreamed of, how his father, grandfather, and father before that, had all been great warriors, heroes. He wanted to be one too, he just wasn't good enough. Pyrrha tried to offer her help again at these words. Jaune merely raised his voice, and said he didn't want to be the damsel in distress, to be the goofball while everyone else fights for their lives. After Pyrrha tried to comfort Jaune with a hand on the shoulder, all Jaune could do was back away, and ask to be alone.

Vincent heard after Pyrrha left that another student, Cardin had also overheard their talk, and threatened to expose Jaune if he didn't do everything he wanted.


	16. Chapter 16

_Again, bracket joke. Take Care._

Ch. 16 the Final Four

Today was Cardin vs. Blake, and Claudia vs. Pyrrha. The rivals seemed pretty appropriate today, the bully vs the Faunus in hiding, and the Centurion, vs the Spartan.

First Cardin was up to bat. The battle began with Cardin stampeding at Blake with his mace held high. Blake obviously dodged the strike and got behind him, readying for her own attack with her sword.

Somehow Cardin wheeled around, and smacked her across the arena, she got up, steadied herself, but before she could attack, Cardin came barreling again. The two jumped into the air simultaneously, they met midflight, and it was hard to see what happened. Both landed at the same time on their feet, but then one fell, Blake, Cardin had won again.

Next was between Claudia and Pyrrha. Word around town was these two trained together. It showed during the fight as soon as one move was made, the perfect counter to it was made. Neither side gave an inch. The battle ended when Claudia shot off Shining Star, Pyrrha deflected it with her shield, and Pyrrha rushed Claudia. Certainly both were great fighters.

Vincent noted that after the duel, Jaune left with Cardin's team, instead of Pyrrha. This left one fight for First years, Cardin vs Pyrrha.

After class, Vincent kind of followed Jaune around until he was away from Cardin's team. Then Vincent went up to talk to Jaune.

"Hey man, you dropped your scroll." Vincent said, picking up Jaune's scroll (a handy dandy tablet device, why it's called a scroll Vincent has no idea.)

"Oh, thanks." Jaune replied.

"So, how's life?" Vincent asked, slowly beating his way around the bush.

"Can I be honest with you?" Jaune asked ready to get straight to the point.

Vincent answered. "Of course you can. You did save my life."

"Oh yeah," Jaune remembered, "I sort of messed up. Now Cardin's got me doing whatever he wants."

Vincent thought back. "This is about what happened that night on the roof isn't it?"

"Please don't tell me you were there too." Jaune pleaded.

"Shh, it's ok. I snuck into Beacon too." Vincent confided, trying to find common ground. "Well, I mean Professor Ozpin caught me, but he let me stay" 'for mysterious reasons.' Vincent thought, but didn't say.

"R-really?" Jaune asked. "I wish my problem could go away that easily." Jaune continued.

"Do you want to hear my suggestion?" Vincent asked the Knight.

Jaune only said, "I guess so."

"Make Cardin and everyone else see who you truly are; you are strong, brave, kind, intelligent…" Vincent went on.

"Don't forget funny!" Jaune added in.

"Ha, yeah, that too." Vincent chuckled while continuing. "The point is: if bullies see who you really are, they would be ashamed that they even thought of picking on you."

Jaune answered. "I guess you're right. But what can I do to make them see me?"

"Oh, I don't know, you seem sure of yourself in combat, I'd start there." Vincent said loudly as he walked away. Hoping Jaune would take his advice.


	17. Chapter 17

_Well, this time it is not a bracket joke, but a Karate Kid joke. Last of the duels, epic second year team will be part of a subplot soon. Take Care._

Ch. 17 the Best Around

The next battle practice class was the final match, between Cardin and Pyrrha. The Stakes were high, well not really, but it makes the fight sound more interesting.

Again Cardin used nothing but his huge mace (clearly compensating for something), and Pyrrha used her shield, and her sword/spear in spear mode.

The battle began; Pyrrha took the offensive first, coming at Cardin with her shield raised and her spear in a downward arc. Cardin reacted as fast as he could, he side stepped the shield bash, and blocked the spear with his mace. He actually knocked Pyrrha's weapon out of her hand.

Cardin was ready to counter his undefended opponent. He charged, Pyrrha charged back with her shield raised, at the last second she ducked pulling her shield over her, letting Cardin fall on top of the shield, she threw Cardin like a ragdoll. When he landed, Pyrrha put her spear that was magnetically pulled back to her hand via her semblance to his neck. Pyrrha had won.

At the end of Class Professor Goodwitch reminded us all that we would be headed to Forever Fall forest tomorrow, to collect samples of tree sap.

After class, Jaune once again left with Cardin. Vincent was going to follow him around again, but was stopped by a certain red haired Spartan girl.

"Your name is Vincent right." Pyrrha asked the painter.

Vincent responded. "Yes I am. Why?"

"I've also been following Jaune, and I heard what you said about him facing Cardin. I'm glad someone else is looking out for him, even if they don't know what they're doing either." Pyrrha confessed.

"Hey, I know exactly what I'm doing, and you better believe it." Vincent said with mock seriousness.

"Alright, alright. I just thought your idea was pretty good, and was hoping you could help me figure out how to pull it off." Pyrrha said.

Vincent thought about it. "You know, we are going to Forever Fall tomorrow. Maybe, I get in 'danger' and Jaune has to save me…"

"Not bad for a big picture, but if we are going to do this, make sure you have some of the details figured out by tomorrow. You got that soldier?" Pyrrha drilled.

"You got it Sarge!" Vincent saluted Pyrrha.

Unbeknownst to Pyrrha and Vincent, fate had its own plan for proving Jaune to be a hero. Cardin had gathered the idea to cover Pyrrha in syrup, and get her attacked by Rapier wasps. Unbeknownst to Cardin however, other things are attracted to syrup, including creatures of Grimm.


	18. Chapter 18

_Awesomeness level is almost maxed out! I think these are the last of the characters I will introduce. So, take care._

Ch. 18 HWNT for the Sport

Professor Goodwitch explained. "Yes the Forever Fall forest is beautiful, but it is also very dangerous. Make sure to collect samples of the trees deep within the forest, and I and the second year students are here to make sure that none of you die while doing so."

'Alright.' Vincent thought. 'Time for operation Alpha Jaune to commence.'

Vincent's plan was simple, have Claudia attacked by a painted up Grimm monster, have Jaune defeat it, and have him be awesome forever.

It did not go according to plan at all however. First of all, Pyrrha didn't get Jaune to come by to help Claudia, next all the syrup attracted real Grimm, and third neither Vincent nor Jaune ended up saving Claudia, it was Tom Wellington who did it.

Vincent saw it all; a King Taijitsu (a giant snake with two heads on either side of its body that is half black and half white) was attracted to the students, and found Claudia. Claudia was kind of strapped down by Vincent to prevent her from helping Jaune, so she was a sitting duck. Then out of nowhere this second year guy with black hair, a red shirt with a blue work jacket, jeans, tan work boots, and a giant boomerang weapon, fell out of the sky on top of the snake.

He jammed his boomerang into the snake's head, 'one head down' he had said, 'one to go.' He then threw the boomerang with impressive strength into the other snake's head, killing it instantly. Then he rescued Claudia, and Vincent swears he saw Claudia flash him a 'oh thank you beautiful stranger' smile. Vincent couldn't lie that Tom was attractive, and a literal life saver.

Vincent did eventually recognize him as Tom Wellington, the T in Team HWNT (Hunt), consisting of Hunter Wolfe, Will Gooding, Neil Davis, and of course Tom Wellington. This was last year's premiere team, as they were remembered as being the ones to find and capture Roman Torchwick last year.

Vincent later found out what happened to Jaune, he threw his syrup onto Cardin, attracting a huge Ursa (you know the bear thing) and single handedly protected Cardin and killed the beast, with minor help from Pyrrha's magnetism, adjusting Jaune's shield position so he would not die. After that day, Cardin never gave Jaune any problems.

That night, Vincent thought about what happened earlier. When Vincent saw Tom he was reminded of his time on that island…

One day, about eight years ago, his family was taking an airship back from the land of Menagerie, where Faunus populations are mostly centralized, forced to live in slums. On the way back, an engine blew, the ship was taken over by Pirates, and his parents were kidnapped. Vincent flashed back to that night.

"Oh my! I just absolutely adore this plan, don't you Doc?" said a man in a black suit.

"I would adore you to shut up Georgio!" the Doc yelled.

Vincent even at the age of eight knew these were some bad people. So his instincts kicked in, he attacked the men that were holding his parents hostage. It didn't work as the man called Georgio just held the boy up by his feet.

"Well, who do we have here, little Vincent wants to fight does he?" Georgio mocked. "Let's play a little game why don't we, I will give you ten seconds to decide which one of your parents' lives.

"No! I won't you are a bad man!" Vincent screamed at the evil doer.

"Uh oh, five seconds decide quickly!" Georgio mocked.

"Please don't kill them! I love them!" Vincent yelled.

"Times up. Who's it gonna be Vincent?" Georgio asked.

Vincent knew what he had to say. "Kill me; just let them live, please." Vincent cried.

"A very wise choice for a boy, too bad it isn't in the plan just yet." The Doc said with disdain heavy in his voice.

Georgio responded. "It's okay though Vincent, we're just going to take your parents, until you are old enough to die, won't that be grand?"

After that, the pirates took all the hostages aboard their airship, and left Vincent to crash into the sea, and survive the journey to the nearest island by himself.

Once Vincent washed ashore, he was met by two beowolves, Vincent's first Grimm encounter, he was terrified, both were defeated by a tough yet friendly older man named Connor, well that was the name he gave anyway, he had kind of long brown hair that ended in curls, he wore a tan jacket with a plaid shirt, and his hazel eyes sparkled when he was given an interesting challenge to solve.

Vincent was wounded by Connor on their first day together on the island however, in his fight with the beowolves, he accidentally slashed open Vincent's chest with his sword, Brushido, and later that day his life was saved by the same man. That was Vincent's first scar, right across his chest, he didn't really let people see any of his scars, and thankfully none messed with his 'beautiful' face.

Vincent thought about how over the next five years, the two survived on that island, and Vincent honed his skills. Vincent was taught how to feel his surroundings, how to unlock his aura, and how to move with speed and grace, how he learned to fight, and how he learned to tolerate pain.

Vincent remembered a large chunk of his life, a chunk he had almost forgotten for years. It was all back, it was wonderful, even though it made Vincent's head feel like it was about to burst and his body began flailing, but just as he tried to keep the memory, it was almost all gone again. All he was spared to remember was that first day, when he washed ashore.

When Vincent realized his team had witnessed one of his 'fits' he immediately came up with an excuse. "Uh, headache, a really bad one. But don't worry… it's all gone."


	19. Chapter 19

_Little jellies. Need I say more? Take Care._

Ch. 19 All's Fair in Love, War, and the HWNT

The next Saturday, since there were no classes, most of the teams decided to take the airship into Vale for a day out on the town.

Lash and Vladlina, who were getting to be very close friends, went to Vale. While Vincent and Claudia, and her good friend Tom stayed behind at Beacon.

Lunch was pretty awkward that day, with most people gone, and who was left didn't really like Vincent. Until Vincent noticed all of team JNPR stayed behind. So Vincent signaled for Claudia and Tom to sit with the team.

"So what's this talk of a guy taking on an Ursa Major by himself?" Tom asked, breaking into the conversation.

"Oh, it was nothing really I…" Jaune tried to be modest.

"Come on man, that was awesome!" Tom congratulated.

"Yeah, you should be proud." Claudia agreed.

"Jaune saved Cardin too." Pyrrha said. "But I heard Tom here saved someone way better, am I right Tom?" Pyrrha asked, while gesturing to Claudia.

The whole table, minus Vincent, all raised their voices in mock catcalls, joking that the two were already in a steamy and passionate romance.

To this, Claudia replied. "Come on guys, we just started dating. We're taking it slow."

Vincent then proceeded to choke on the water he was drinking. 'Dating! I had no idea the two were talking until today.' Vincent thought, confused and feeling something he had never experienced before, jealousy maybe, that they did not express their feelings to Vincent. If you didn't know, Vincent is not good with people skills.

"Hey, you okay Vinnie?" Tom asked realizing Vincent's struggles.

Vincent ignored the blatant insult of the nickname 'Vinnie' and responded with the first thing that came to his head.

"Yeah, it's just…" Vincent looked around. "They've got… little jellies. You know, for bread and stuff." Then Vincent picked up an individual package of mixed fruit jelly.

Tom replied. "Oh…kay then." Then Vincent heard him whisper into Claudia's ear. "Your friend is kinda weirding me out, we should go hang out somewhere a bit more, private."

Claudia smirked and said "Okay, what do you have in mind?"

"Well, I was thinking there's this greenhouse on the roof of the Science department. It's just supposed to stay a secret." Tom divulged, man, even Vincent had to agree that Tom trusting her after only knowing each other a few days was a bit sweet.

Vincent watched them leave. He had finished eating and decided not to stick around for the daily antics of 'bored Nora.' He was walking down some unassuming hallway; he had never been down before. Vincent sort of zoned out, and let his feet guide the way. Turning a right, Vincent walked into an old, abandoned hall. The hall was dimly lit by light bulbs that had not been changed for years.

Vincent saw two figures talking, unable to hear what they were saying. One was in the shadows, they looked like a student, and the other… Vincent could not believe his eyes, he was, a henchman of the Black Claw!

He wished he had snuck up on them, but the student heard him. They both scattered. Vincent followed the henchman. He was not going to let years of tracking down the Black Claw go to waste, just because he missed the perfect chance to investigate. He ran through the halls after him. The henchman had a good escape plan in case something like this ever happened, turning left and right. Vincent tried to catch up, but, he was gone.

After this fiasco, Vincent tried to find the student that was talking with him. Since the halls were abandoned mostly, Vincent thought it would be easy. He roamed the corridors, until he heard a voice.

"Vin? Is that you? What are you doing here, kid?" Tom came walking towards him, and wrapped his arm around Vincent's neck, pretending like they were friends.

"Oh, I was just looking for Claudia. Nothing you need to worry about." Vincent answered evasively, man he needs to get better at this creative lying.

After hearing this Tom's face looked shocked, but quickly returned to his good natured face, Vincent now realized it was a fake. "Listen kid, your 'friend' and I are going out now. If you want her, you're just going to have to wait till I'm through with her. Capiche?"

Just then a student walked by, Tom looked worried. It turned out to be Velvet Scarlatina, a bunny eared Faunus. "Excuse me, I hope I'm not interrupting anything, do you know where the library is?"

Tom answered. "It's down that hall, over there." After Velvet left, Tom sighed out the words "Faunus Scum" and continued with our talk.

The rest of the talk was minor details; just further condemning Tom to be thought of as a bad guy by Vincent, until they made it to the Science department. Tom shoved Vincent off in the other direction for one last, more aggressive than passive act.

Vincent left the two to be alone. He clearly wasn't wanted by anyone at the moment.

Vincent decided to go find a book to read. In the library, Vincent looked around at the large collection of books and marveled how few people were there, aside from him and the librarian, he counted just two others. Strangely Velvet was nowhere to be seen. He eventually decided to check out a fairy tale about Team GRIM and left.

When Vincent got back to his dorm, he was greeted by Lash, Vladlina, and Claudia all back. They were recounting each other's day, Vladlina ran into a strange girl named Penny who said she wanted to fight in the tournament that was coming up. Lash had a blast with his old buddy Sun Wukong; a monkey- tailed Faunus from Lash's days of touring Remnant. Claudia explained how Vincent had almost ruined her and Tom's day, but it was recovered when she and Tom took some quiet time up on the roof.

Vincent recounted his own misadventures, he embarrassed himself in social bonding, he let a villain that was literally in the school, right in front of his face get away, he couldn't with certainty identify the student that was talking with him, and to top it all off, he had strained his friendship with Claudia.

"What Claudia said, and then I got this book from the library." Was all Vincent could say.

Then Vincent heard a faint shouting sound. "Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" Vincent looked to see if the rest of the team heard the girl, it sounded like Blake, yelling. Immediately Lash looked a bit worried and left to go see what happened.

Vincent was left to explain what had happened. "It sounded like a big fight coming from team RWBY, Blake left, and Lash went to see where she was going at this time of night."


	20. Chapter 20

_This is the last chapter of 2013, also it is the last of the chapters that will technically be canon. Happy new year's and take care._

Ch. 20 the Most Dangerous Game

A few days later, Vincent awoke ready for another day. Lash still wasn't back from his escapades with Blake, but he wasn't too worried that Lash would be back soon.

Vladlina however was terrified of what might have been happening. She was pacing around the room waiting for Vincent and Claudia to wake up. "I swear as soon as I get my hands on that punk… oh I just hope he's ok." Vladlina hoped.

"Listen Vladlina, we'll go out and search for him today, again. Until then, just try to relax." Vincent reasoned.

Vladlina responded. "Relax! I cannot relax. My boyfriend is off who knows where with some other girl, he could be DEAD for all I know!"

"Come on Vladlina, just take a deep breath and let it go." Claudia joined in.

Vincent got himself ready for a day out on the town, taking a nice cold shower, getting his supplies, scraping together a bit of money for the day, and putting on his 'one and only' straw hat. Just when Vincent returned to his room, he was met with an unwelcome surprise, Lash.

"Hey bro, so, how's it hanging?" Lash asked with his hand literally caught in the cookie jar.

Vincent, stunned for about two and a half seconds, answered. "Quickly tell me exactly what happened."

"Okay, okay. I ran into Sun buttering up to Blake by the big statue in the courtyard. Next I sort of tagged along for a 'Faunus Night Out'. After that we hung out a while. And finally, Blake explained why she left that night, and about her ties to the White Fang. After that, they asked for some alone time." Lash elaborated.

"Which were what reasons exactly?" Vincent interrogated, he couldn't trust anyone, not since he discovered that Black Claw member, he knew he was acting a bit paranoid, but he had to.

"She was practically born into it, from a young age she was at the forefront of every boycott and rally. The usual story, I hear. She left finally when she could no longer ignore the fact that the White Fang had become more destructive and misguided than she deemed just." Lash confided.

"As for why she left that night, well long story short, her team was divided upon the issue of The White Fang…" Lash started.

"And Blake revealed to her team accidentally that she was a Faunus, and did what she does best, got away." Vincent finished.

Lash looked surprised and said, "Yeah, how'd you?"

"You're not the only one around here with good senses, remember." Vincent reminded him.

Vincent continued. "Anyway, I need to tell you something, yesterday I ran into a Black Claw member here at school, and he was talking to a student, I didn't see their face but, I think it's…"

Just that second, the door flew open. Vladlina jumped through it. Vincent could not tell whether Vladlina hugged him so hard that it looked like a tackle, or tackled him so hard it looked like a hug. Either way she was glad he was back, and glad she could knock some sense into him.

Claudia and ugh, Tom shuffled into the already crowded room. Tom stated the obvious as if it was a mind blowing revelation. "Hey, Lash is here. I guess we don't have to go find him. That's good, now I can get back to working on the string of dust shop robberies. Claudes if you want to come, I'm sure it would be okay."

"Oh Tom-tom! That sounds great!" Claudia or Claudes apparently, jumped for joy.

"Can we come?" Vincent asked. He didn't really care about most of the plan, but it would allow him to investigate Tom further. Seeing as he was the first person he found after the 'incident'. Vincent also thought checking up on the robberies could help him figure out this crazy 'League' business.

Tom thought for a few seconds and then answered. "I don't see why not, as long as you don't get in the way."

So the team, and Tom, headed out to solve 'The Case of The Mysterious Dust Bandits'. As they were leaving, Vincent saw a few of the students still hanging around in the halls, Ren, Velvet, Cardin, and Jaune.

At the crime scenes, Vincent was trying to figure out the inner workings of Tom. He was pretty smart, being able to tell some evidence, a type of gun magazine, to be favored by the White Fang. He was shrewd in his interrogating of the witnesses/suspects. He was thorough in his story of events. He even seemed to connect emotionally to the victims.

Piecing the puzzle together, Tom concluded that whoever was behind the robberies (presumably The White Fang.) They were going to strike a huge shipment of dust tonight at the docks.

That night, Tom had the team set up high above a nearby building, so to keep watch over things. Tom himself got to a position behind a crate at the edge of the docks. Nothing happened for a while, so Vincent started reading the fairy tale he got from the Library.

"The Vigil of Team GRIM" Vincent read the title, barely audible. Most of the story was nothing new, but the colorful pictures did instill more fear in the artist. He did read an interesting part about Magnus having a half-brother, Enigmund Vigil, who was given stewardship over the house of Van and all of Remnant in Magnus's place, he is remembered as the start of the secret society of Vigil said to be the 'christened protectors of Remnant'. Vincent got to the end of the story to find an oddly prophetic poem: Son of the Most Mighty, Wielder of the Unwieldy, Harbinger of Grimm, and forever cursed to walk the wind.

Vincent was pried from his book, when he heard noises down at the docks. The robbery was starting, it was the White Fang but, there was someone else. Roman Torchwick? He was the man in the bowler hat that robbed 'From Dust till Dawn' like forever ago. At first Vincent was bewildered that Faunus would work with such a loathsome human. Then it dawned on him, the League of Harmony had lots of different criminals working in the same organization. Now only one real question remained, who could need so much dust?

Tom was sneaking in closer to try and hear what they were saying, or maybe he was going to fight them. Whatever he was going to do, the team lost visual on him. After a few minutes, Claudia began to get worked up, before she could voice her discomfort though, Blake came out from the shadows and tried to get some answers of her own from Torchwick.

"Brothers of the White Fang, why are you aiding this scum?" Blake asked the henchmen.

Roman responded for them. "Didn't you get the memo? The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture."

"Tell me what it is, or I'll put an end to your little operation." Blake threatened.

Torchwick only answered. "I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation." As several airships flew in, Blake was distracted, allowing Roman to use his cane that shot explosives to get away from the girl.

Blake retreated under heavy fire. Torchwick was surprise attacked by a banana to the face. Sun came down upon him.

Roman asked. "You are not the brightest banana in the bunch, are ya kid?" A large number of White Fang goons surrounded Sun, he proceeded to flip, punch, and kick the first few. He pulled out a bo staff to deal with the rest of them.

Blake returned to fight Torchwick, yelling. "He's mine!" Roman showed expert handling of his cane, blocking all of Blake's quick strikes. He even knocked her down.

Sun jumped back into the fight, transforming his staff into nun chucks/shotguns (shot-chucks, maybe). Again, the man in the bowler hat easily blocked the attacks of the young Faunus. Blake rejoined the battle, using a bit of a low blow, she knocked Torchwick back.

Roman thought fast, shot at a crate dangling precariously over Blake and Sun's positions. They narrowly escaped getting crushed. Sun landed right in front of Torchwick's cane, he seemed done for.

Then Ruby and some other girl Vincent had never seen before appeared.

"Penny?" Vladlina questioned to herself out loud.

Torchwick then proceeded to shoot Ruby. Penny responded by magically popping swords out of her back, floating around her, she jumped down to engage her foes. She slashed and bashed the henchmen around like they were nothing. Three airships came in for a pass, shooting at the strange girl. She pulled her swords together, charging them for something. Suddenly a huge energy blast was shot at the three ships, slicing all of them open. They landed in the dock. She then went after the ship that had the dust crate on it. It was practically thrown down.

Vincent had no idea how she was doing it. He heard Roman say "These kids just keep getting weirder." Then he got away, again.

At this point, team VVLC began their search for Tom, he was found unconscious next to some other knocked out White Fang members.

"Tom? What happened?" Claudia asked her Tom-tom.

Tom tentatively answered. "Uh, I got caught by these goons, one of them knocked me out and, that's all I know."

This is where Lash broke in. "This was a great little fiesta, but I'm ready for the after-siesta."

Back at Beacon in the front of team VVLC's door, Vincent stopped.

"Hey, is everything ok Vince?" Tom asked Vincent.

"No, it is not." Vincent replied calmly.

Lash then asked. "So what's the matter?"

"There is a mole at Beacon." Vincent steeled his courage.

Silence filled the air. Until it was lifted by Tom asking. "Who is it? Tell me right now!"

Vincent looked right into his dark, reddish brown eyes. "You should know. It's you Tom."


	21. Chapter 21

_2014! My gift to you is to continue the cliffhanger and drop some plot bombs! In retrospect, I probably should have reversed chapters 20 and 21's titles, but oh well. Cheers and Take care._

Ch. 21 Art Inspector

Vincent prepared for the worst, but he never expected what would happen after letting his accusation fly.

"Vincent what is wrong with you?! How DARE you!" Claudia demanded while practically pile driving Vincent into the ground

"Whoa Claudes, let's hear him out before we break every bone in his body." Tom reasoned with a hint of slyness in his voice.

"Why should we?" Claudia asked her boyfriend. "He could have gotten you expelled for a statement like that."

Tom only said. "Well, I'm assuming he has his reasons, and also he probably hasn't told anyone of his suspicions considering, and I agree with him. There is a mole."

Vladlina hopped on the 'question everything' bandwagon to ask Tom. "What makes you say there is a mole?"

"I guess Vincent has his own ideas, but. First off, I noticed a couple of familiar faces throughout our day of investigating. Second, I doubt the White Fang needed that many airships and men for one heist. And lastly, I wasn't just attacked by those goons, I was ambushed. They knew I would be there." Tom explicated.

Vincent finally answered. "Wow, I had no idea about any of that. I thought you were contacting them when you went off the grid."

Vincent continued. "Going back to the beginning, I was walking down this old hall way, when I turned a corner and found a student talking with a Black Claw member. I chased the henchman, but he got away. I then searched the halls for a student in the area, and Tom was the first person I found. Also, after a short talk we had, I was thinking it wouldn't be a big stretch for you to be in League with the Black Claw."

"Look, I know I'm not perfect. But I would not work with the Black Claw or White Fang or whoever, and I would never betray Beacon." Tom defended.

"Then why were you in the old hall way with me, instead of with Claudia?" Vincent asked.

Tom explained, while being slightly embarrassed. "I was getting my stereo, so Claudes and I could listen to some music. Heh heh."

"So this whole thing could have been avoided if you would have suspended your presumptions Vincent?" Claudia asked.

Tom answered for Vincent. "No, it's ok. I'm just glad Vincent told me, and let me prove my innocence."

"But if it's not you, then that means it must be…" Vincent quietly said, again very suspicious of his fellow classmates.

The rest of the conversation was done in hushed tones, to prevent anyone from listening in on them. When the conversation was over, Vincent made a scene and decided to sleep outside instead of in his room.

Vincent awoke with a start, to find a certain Faunus lording over him.

"Hello Vincent." Velvet greeted the painter with a harsh tone. "I understand that you think there is a mole at Beacon. After hearing your blunder with Tom, I figured sooner or later you would catch on."

"But Velvet; Why? How? Who? Black Claw? I need some answers." Vincent told the unsuspecting bunny-eared Faunus.

Velvet said in the same harsh tone. "Very well, since I am going to kill you anyway you might as well hear what I have to say. It all started a few years ago, I was recruited by the White Fang, and they quickly found out that I was better at shoving a knife into someone's back, rather than a sword in their face. Later, I found out about a deal the White Fang had made with the Black Claw and other organizations and gangs. There was to be an armistice for the sake of 'Harmony'.

"I asked what it was about, and well, it turns out, a certain person needed lots of help in putting the world under their thumb, they came to me with the need of someone to infiltrate Beacon Academy and stay there to keep eyes on things." Velvet depicted; referring to herself.

"The League, who's behind it?" Vincent asked.

Velvet answered. "The highest I ever met was David, a real wolf in sheep's clothing eh." Velvet continued. "However, I heard talk that Cinder was one of the top dogs."

"Cinder?" Vincent thought about it. "I'm going to go out on a stretch, does the word Vigil mean anything to you?"

Velvet looked very surprised for a moment, and then responded. "Enough talk. Now you die." Velvet then dragged Vincent over to the Cliffside. "I think you had a mental breakdown and decided to throw yourself off the cliff, what do you think Vincent?" Velvet asked.

"Well, it's pretty believable, except for one thing." Vincent let the Faunus in on a little secret. "I recorded this whole conversation on my scroll, and you are going to have to explain yourself to Professor Ozpin." Vincent smiled.

The look on Velvet's face was priceless. The sneaky spy had been duped. She quickly replaced her surprise with anger and was about to throw him off the cliff when his team finally jumped out of their hiding places and surrounded her.

The team brought her into Professor Ozpin's waiting room, in front of his private office, hoping he would still be working. He wasn't, so Vincent decided to try to pick his way into the office. It succeeded. The room held a scary feeling about it, obviously it was dark, and they weren't supposed to be in there, but there was something else, it felt old, like age had haunted it for many, many years.

He investigated the room for a few minutes, he found a few things, hats, scarves, an impressive spoon collection, and a very interesting chess game still in play. He looked closely at the pieces, it was clear that the white side had been winning, but the black side was patiently waiting to strike. He looked closer he saw that there were faces on the pieces. Vincent looked to see who the Black Knights were thinking he would see himself.

He didn't 'phew' that would be weird. Then he noticed the Black and White Kings were nearing each other. They would have to face off soon, and Vincent realized. He was the White King.

Before Vincent said anything, he took a good look around him. "It never hurts to be cautious." He whispered.

"I agree." Ozpin agreed from a dark corner.

"Ahh! Oh, Professor, I didn't see you there, um we have some business for you to attend to." Vincent stuttered to the imposing Professor.

"Business? Of what sort?" He asked the student.

Vincent replied. "We found a mole at the school, Velvet."

"That does not sound like business for me young man. Miss Velvet you are free to go." Ozpin released the traitor.

Vincent was shocked. "What was that for Professor?"

"These are delicate matters Vincent. They cannot be solved by just fighting people and throwing them in jail. Besides, Miss Velvet will continue to do things according to the plan from now on, trust me." The Professor reasoned.

"Don't tell me you're in the League of Harmony too." Vincent pleaded.

Ozpin countered with. "Oh no, I'm not, definitely. But I've kept my eye on it for quite some time now. Although I do not agree with their methods, they have gotten the necessary results.

"What do you mean Professor?" Vincent asked the teacher.

"You see this board Vincent, see how all the pieces are scattered, and the King stands alone." Ozpin gestured to the board.

Vincent was starting to see. "Yeah, but I'm the king."

"Exactly, what the League has done has been to gather the pieces together, and give you a fighting chance against evil." Ozpin explained.

"Wait, they've been helping me?" Vincent asked, very perplexed.

"Yes they have, why do you think all of your teammates are here?" the Professor got his mind thinking.

Vincent thought long and hard. "They've brought us together to win some kind of war. With me being the leader."

"Yes." Ozpin said.

"Who do I have to fight Professor? The Black Claw? The League of Harmony? Vigil?" Vincent asked. Ozpin gave an intrigued look at the last name.

Ozpin gave a very thoughtful answer. "I would say sooner or later you will have to face them, they are criminals after all. But, the real fight will be much more dangerous. It will decide the fate of all of Remnant."

"But who?" Vincent demanded.

Ozpin gave him a very somber look. "You will have to face… Grimm."


	22. Chapter 22

_A hardcore look at Vincent when he is faced with an insurmountable challenge. Also, recently I have been reading too much romantic fanfiction. Take care._

Ch. 22 the Art of Failure

Vincent was awake late at night, still training. He had gotten into his head to learn how to fight if he ever lost his weapon during battle. He had punched the bag so hard, and for so long, his knuckles were bleeding through their bandages, but he had to keep going he had to fight through the pain.

Vincent was so caught up in training he didn't notice someone was right behind him. "Vincent?" Claudia tried to get his attention. Vincent swung around and nearly hit her square in the face, pulling his punch at the last second, missing by millimeters.

"I'm sorry, what is it?" Vincent asked. He had a distant look and sound, turning back to keep training.

"Vincent, you haven't eaten or slept in days. We're worried about you. I'm worried about you." Claudia said worryingly.

"There's no time. I have to keep training. I have to be ready. I have to keep training." Vincent chanted monotonously while still punching.

"Vincent, look at me!" Claudia raised her voice. Vincent did as he was ordered. He saw Claudia standing there in her usual attire, high top sneakers, denim capris, and a metal scale covered sky blue sleeveless hoodie with a plain yellow tank top undershirt, her short dirty blond hair was up in a side ponytail. Then Vincent looked at her face, she had a frown, and a small bruise that looked very fresh. He then noticed her eyes, a mixture of red and violet, fuchsia. Though they were red now, she had been crying.

"Claudia what happened?" Vincent wondered.

Claudia responded. "Tom and I got in a fight and it got pretty rough. But if you think this is bad, at least I can still walk." Claudia proceeded to grin devilishly.

"I hope you saved some for me." Vincent joked, reminding Claudia and him of the way he used to be, happy and carefree.

Their laughter slowly faded to an awkward silence, until Claudia spoke up. "Come on Vincent, the tournament is tomorrow, get some sleep."

"I know I should, it's just that, I don't feel ready even though I have all this pressure on me to." Vincent said in voice full of doubt and fear. "It's like I have everyone looking up to me to be a perfect example, and I know that all I can do is fail."

"I know how you feel." Claudia said knowingly. "I get that feeling every day I wake up, and it stays with me until I go to sleep at night."

Vincent only looked her straight in the eyes.

"But I wake up every morning because I know I have to; I put on a brave face and take it." She then punched the bag so hard that it flew across the room. "Got it? Good. Now let's go get some sleep."

"You're right, as always." Vincent conceded. "And, single again?"

"Yep. Hold on, is that all you are taking away from this lecture?" Claudia asked while lightly punching Vincent on the shoulder.

Vincent felt his knees buckle, he stumbled. Claudia just barely caught him. The two were now… very close. Vincent could feel very strong feelings now, but he could not act on them because he was now passing out due to severe exhaustion.


	23. Chapter 23

_My vision of the tournament. Big stuff. Might be last chapter for a few days until I get some more ideas. Take care._

Ch. 23 A Harmonious Tournament

Vincent awoke in his bed the next morning feeling terrible. But, he also felt amazing, things kind of happened last night that were, interesting. As soon as Vincent got out of bed, he went straight to the locker rooms to take the coldest shower he could. Partially to wake him up, but mostly for other reasons.

Down in Vale, everyone was hustling and bustling. Vincent felt lost in the masses that had come far and wide for the tournament.

Vincent made it just in time for registration; his first opponent would be… somebody from Atlas named Taylor Chuck, who comes up with these names anyway. Despite being four inches shorter and suffering from severe exhaustion, Vincent thought the fight went pretty well, he only almost lost twice.

Onto round two, Vincent would be facing… Claudia?

"Wait, this can't be right. It says we're going to fight each other next." Vincent referred to the bracket.

Claudia answered. "It looks right to me. What's the matter, scared to fight a girl?"

"No. I mean Yes. I mean… out of all the people competing today, we are already being put against each other, two people on the same team." Vincent said, disconcerted.

Claudia tried to calm him down. "It's fine. What's the worst that could happen? It's our turn."

The two went up on the stage together. Both quickly prepared for the fight. Vincent steadied his footing and drew Brushido. Claudia obviously got her 'wrecking ball' Shining Star into the right condition to fight.

The battle began. Vincent initially thought a defensive strategy would be good. Claudia had the same idea, although she was acting more reserved now than against most opponents. Vincent realized he would have to be the first one to strike.

Vincent began with an overhead strike, a classic maneuver. Claudia blocked with her star still in its gauntlet. She pushed him back. Vincent tried again with a side strike. Again Claudia blocked, but Vincent had a trick up his sleeve. Brushido is a true two handed sword. It is very unusual to ever wield it without both hands. But if you are Vincent Van, you can sometimes get away with it, and use your free hand to punch your opponent, and knock them off balance.

This punch did cause some negative repercussions such as Vincent's wound reopening making him the first spilt blood of the day. Let's not forget that it also agitated Claudia enough to go on the attack.

Claudia shot her weapon off with extreme speed right at Vincent. He was hit square in the chest. She had actually just taken his breath away. Claudia then retracted her ball and chain back to her gauntlet for another shot. BOOM! Vincent had to think fast. Or rather, not think at all, he gripped his sword hard, and with a powerful swing of his makeshift bat, redirected the flying star of death back at its master.

Wow. Vincent just did that, and he had won. Both Vincent and Claudia were winded from the fight, as if it was 'planned' that way.

As soon as the fight was over, tons of people in uniforms for the White Fang, Black Claw, and League all came out of nowhere, captured all of the students, and left without a trace.

Later in some interrogation room, Vincent had a bag taken off of his head so he could see. It didn't help much. It was very dark, except for a bright lamp shining in his face.

"Hey, I was wondering. Can you get my hat?" Vincent asked politely.

A modified voice that Vincent could not put a face to responded. "Silence, you will not speak unless answering my questions."

"Alright then, question away I guess." Vincent retaliated.

The voice asked. "Why are you hindering the League's affairs?"

"Because, you are a bunch of criminals, doing criminal activities." Vincent replied coolly.

It asked again. "What do you know of Vigil?"

"It is some secret society dedicated to protecting me. It began long ago after Magnus defeated Grimm. And, I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say that both you and the leader of the League are in it." Vincent finished.

The voice then asked in a more amused tone. "And, who do you think the leader and I are?"

"Oh, that one's easy. You're a nobody, and the leader is Cinder." Vincent said proudly. Until the voice moved the lamp so that it shone on them.

"Cinder is not the leader. And, I am certainly not a 'nobody.'" Said the voice of Connor.

"YOU! I thought you were dead! I should have made sure once I got off that island." Vincent said with a wide array of emotions.

"Ah, you remember me, huh Vincent. Well, five years, hard to forget entirely even with your 'condition.'" Connor declaimed.

"Just tell me what is going on." Vincent demanded.

"Come now Vincent, you already know what is going on according to my reports of your progress." Connor then dropped files onto the metal table.

"You already know about the League, Vigil, heck you even know about Grimm. My question to you is: why haven't you figured it out yet?"

Vincent contemplated this for a moment, and then answered. "Because I am scared. My fear has crippled my mind. How can save the world of Remnant if I can't even save myself?"

"If that is what you believe, then I have no choice but to throw you off of my ship. Of course, if you are worthy, you can save yourself, and your friends." Connor orated menacingly, not at all like the Connor Vincent met and trained with on the island.

Vincent was then dragged out of the interrogation room; he was given his hat and his brush back. He met with his team in what looked like the loading bay.

Vincent immediately rushed over to Claudia. "I can't believe you did that back there!"

Claudia responded with. "Are we really gonna do this right now?"

Vincent retorted with. "Yes we are. You let me win."

"I did not!" Claudia shouted. "You beat me fair and square."

"Oh come on, I got one hit on you." Vincent argued.

"Well maybe I did. Maybe you needed some confidence. It doesn't matter now. I think we're all dead meat." Claudia gave in realizing her hopelessness.

This is where Vladlina started yelling. "Would you two stop acting like an old married couple and help us find a way out of this mess!"

Lash then backed her up loudly. "Yeah, screaming never solves anything!"

All of a sudden, the loading bay opened up, all four students came falling out of the sky.


	24. Chapter 24

_All right, got one more chapter cranked out. Is this story getting too big and complex? NO! Enjoy, and take care._

Ch. 24 An Artist's Fall From Grace

It all happened so quickly. Vincent was at a loss. He saw his friends and himself falling to their doom. They were very high up, but it didn't matter. Vincent had practically no aura left after all of his training and fighting. Claudia didn't even have a semblance to help her down safely. Vincent never found out what Vladlina could do and Lash, well Lash could only scream at the top of his lungs, which coincidentally was probably his best bet for survival.

Vincent's heart was racing. His heart and mind started going into overdrive, time slowed down. Vincent remembered a lesson he had with Connor about fighting with Brushido.

"You see, with a two handed sword you can't attack an enemy and protect a friend at the same time. You have to let go with one hand and have faith that your other one will do its job while you attack." Connor had told him.

"So, I should trust my friend and myself while I focus on the challenge ahead of me?" Vincent asked.

Connor answered in his usual wise tone. "Yes, you should."

Vincent realized what Connor meant. He had to trust his friends to fight their own battles, so that Vincent could focus on protecting the world as a whole. In this case, he had to trust them to save themselves from falling to their deaths.

He saw Vladlina using her specially designed combat skirt/cape (don't ask, just accept that it is a thing) to slow her down while every couple seconds it looked like she was just levitating. Lash as Vincent suspected was trying to use his supersonic shout to slow his fall with marginal success. And Claudia, Claudia was flailing her body around, he caught a glimpse of her eyes, they were showing one emotion horror.

Claudia clearly had no plan or hope of living through this fall. Vincent grappled with what he should do. His inner Connor was telling him to let her fall. But deeper inside of him he felt something more powerful. He had to help her.

Vincent angled his body to get closer to his falling teammate. He grabbed her. Vincent then began a series of movements with Claudia to slow down their fall. The two danced in the air, turning, moving, falling, and flying.

Time moved in slow motion and a beautiful silent symphony accompanied their effortless ballet. They were now nearing the ground. Wait, that wasn't ground. It was water; they were going to hit the ocean. Vincent thought quickly on how to protect Claudia. They could survive if he… Suddenly Vincent got underneath Claudia and held her in a tight embrace. They crashed into the water. Vincent felt himself lose consciousness.

He awoke on the beach with Claudia giving him mouth to mouth. Vincent coughed. Claudia's panic was relieved when he was okay. Vladlina and Lash were not on the island yet, they had it to themselves. Vincent took a look around to see where they had landed.

"Heh." Vincent sighed. "He had to bring us here."

Here it was. The place Vincent dreaded more than anywhere in all of Remnant. The place where dreams turned to nightmares and a thousand lost souls haunt the living. Where there is no difference between beasts and men. They were on Itami: the island Vincent had spent five years of his life, five unspeakable years.

Claudia asked. "Vincent where are we?"

"We are lost. It is up to us to find our own way back." Vincent answered.


	25. Chapter 25

_Phew, done. Prepare for lots of bad jokes, and bad attempts at writing plots. Again, lots of romantically involving stuff. As I always say, take care._

Ch. 25 (Gilli) Van's Island

Vincent and Claudia were waiting for Lash and Vladlina to wash ashore when out of nowhere a pack of beowolves attacked the teens on the beach.

"You can do this Vincent, I'm right here." Claudia said encouragingly.

Vincent really thought he could. Then suddenly, he was eight years old again. He was lost, alone and afraid. He panicked, collapsing to the ground and arms flailing.

The beowolves surrounded him. Luckily Claudia was there to save his life. Vincent watched as she single-handedly took out the entire pack. Bashing skulls, and working up a sweat.

"Vincent, are you okay? Talk to me, come on Vincent, Say something." Claudia begged.

Vincent's fit then subsided. His head hurt and he had a few cuts and bruises. "Something."

After this event Lash and Vladlina finally joined the castaways. Vincent explained briefly about his time on the island. He spent his days training with Connor around the beach and sometimes the highland mountains in the center of the island. They lived in a cave/hut/airship wreckage near the base of the mountain. Vincent's best bet on how to escape the island was to go to the cave and wait till morning to start the expedition to get to the other side of the island.

At the cave, Vincent welcomed his team to his humble abode. It was just as Vincent had left it, almost four years ago, at the age of thirteen. Not much to look at but, it was great for survival purposes.

That night, Vladlina offered to take first watch. No one argued. Vincent woke up about two hours later. Lash had gotten up a few minutes early to talk with Vladlina.

He heard Lash say, "Hey, what's going on?"

"Nothing. Which is a relief." Vladlina answered.

Lash then perked up. "Did you hear that?"

"It was nothing." Vladlina brushed it off. "Probably just Vincent wailing in his dreams again."

"Does he really do that?" Lash asked, trying to hold in his laughter. Vincent heard footsteps, he was going to get up and say something about it. When he looked over he saw Vladlina and Lash had guns to their faces.

"Nobody move." One of the henchmen commanded.

Claudia yawned as she was rudely awoken. "What is it?"

"Oh, it's nothing dear girl." A voice replied from the darkness.

"No it's not, it's something quite 'miraculous' indeed." Another, higher pitched voice said from the same place.

Vincent then saw a man walk into the light. He was of average height, not very muscular. He looked like a doctor of some kind. "Doctor Holliday, or the Doc, I presume."

"Oh we've got a smart one here, don't we?" the Doc said.

"Doc I have to ask, what are you doing here?" Vincent asked with an edge to his voice.

The Doc then answered in his 'more normal' voice. "I came here looking for a legend, a 'miracle'." The Doc looked like he had said all he needed. When he realized no one understood him he went more into detail. "In the last days of the Faunus War, the human side developed a powerful new serum capable of bolstering a person's soul giving them the three S's, increased stamina, speed, and strength.

"Okay, but why are you here, there's no secret war base or tomb on the island. It's nothing but wilds out here." Vincent tried to explain.

The Doc continued. "As I was saying, the humans sent a boat carrying the serum into the open ocean to keep it out of reach of the winning Faunus side. By all reports it was lost at sea, except for one little piece of paper hidden away, a complex code. Thanks to young Vladlina here, I had to decipher the message and figure out what it meant all from memory, and with only one good eye, thank you."

"And is this 'miracle serum' part of the 'plan' also?" Vincent asked.

The Doc only laughed, again in his very creepy voice. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no! It is my reward for being faithful to the so called 'plan.' Once I get it, I can do whatever I want.

"Yeah, uh Mr. the Doc, Vladlina isn't very happy with that idea." Lash said sheepishly, while pointing at Vladlina now coursing with fury.

Vincent watched as Vladlina knocked the gun out of her face, punched the goon very hard in the stomach, jump on the next closest crony, and subsequently defeat all of the henchmen around her. Claudia then tried to subdue the Doc.

Seeing his ideas crumbling before him, the Doc fled the scene. Before he left however, he gave Vladlina a parting gunshot to the back. Vladlina fell to the ground; she had used up all of her aura. She started bleeding.

Lash was petrified. He rushed over to do whatever he could to help. He propped her head up and the two were locked in a heart breaking embrace.

It seemed hopeless. Vladlina pointed to one of her knife holsters mouthing incomprehensible words. Vincent pulled out a small piece of paper. It was a code. Vladlina had tried her best to break it, but Vincent took a mental step back to understand the message wasn't a message at all, it was a picture. Vincent tried to think back to his memories of the island.

Then it hit him! There was only one spot on the island where all three mountains hid behind one another to look like a single mountain. The spot Connor never let Vincent go. The Forbidden Coast.


	26. Chapter 26

_Super miraculous chapter for a young couple. Lots of flashbacks now. Uploads may become more unreliable soon, but stick with me. Take care._

Ch. 26 the Forbidden Coast of Miracles

Vincent led the way. Claudia and Lash carried Vladlina across the beach in the early morning light. Luckily they didn't run into any trouble from creatures or the Doc. As they came over the horizon Vincent caught a glimpse of the Forbidden Coast. His mind cascaded back to the second day he was ever on the island.

"There must be some way off this place." The child said. "Maybe a boat or an airship. I bet there's a whole rescue party for me."

The child walked along the beach in the morning in relative silence. He came over a ridge in the sand to see just what he was looking for. Except it was broken, like him. He saw the mountains fuse together into one, and what looked like a head in statue form peeking out of the sand. In the distance the child could just make two black shapes. He thought they were people. He waved and tried to make noise. They came towards him, very quickly. Then the strange man, who saved him, called Connor, stepped in front of him and lightly asked him to get back. He watched as the man swiftly killed two large bear creatures. Connor then told the child that if he ever went to the Forbidden Coast again, the man would be forced to hurt the child in the worst way imaginable, letting him in on the secret of the Coast. Then he said the lesson today would be to not draw attention to him. He meant the child could not make an entire sound the whole day. The punishment for disobeying was as it would always be, a severe butt whooping.

"Vincent is something wrong?" Claudia asked, coming up behind the artist frozen in place.

Vincent then flashed back to the current moment. "Nothing. It is right over there it looks like."

There on the Forbidden Coast, Vincent saw three things. The wrecked boat, a large cargo ship that was probably the Doc's, and a statue. Then Vincent heard a screaming sound coming from the wreckage. The team rushed over to the boat.

Inside there wasn't much, other than some broken glass and really old skeletons. Inside the command bridge of the boat there wasn't much else. It smelled stale with a faint smell of chemicals. They came upon a body on the ground. The Doc, he had injected himself with the 'miracle.' His scar on his face was fading, but the eye itself was still in bad shape. He seemed dead, but his body was still warm, in fact it was burning up. He moved a little.

"I know what you're thinking." The Doc said. "But if your soul rejects the serum, your body instead of being healed will fight itself like mine. Be my guest, burn for all I care." The Doc coughed out the last of his warning along with lots of blood.

"How'd you know the serum could heal wounds?" Claudia asked.

"I didn't for sure, but Connor knew. He wanted us to find it and use it." Vincent answered strangely.

Lash found one unused needle of serum. He walked over to Vladlina.

"This shouldn't have worked, but for a while there, it did, right?" Lash began with a sad smile on his face. "But, I think it's time you knew the truth." Lash continued while staring into Vladlina's eyes. "Without you, I have nothing left to lose." A few tears started forming in Lash's eyes. "If this is our last moment together, I need you to know what you are to me… who you are to me. And that nothing else matters." Lash choked out his possible last goodbye to Vladlina.

Then their lips met, one of the most touching things Vincent had ever seen. Lash put the needle into Vladlina's midsection, near the bullet wound. The team watched as Vladlina began shaking her body around. She was convulsing harder and faster, Vincent could hear her heart beating very rapidly. Then she stopped dead. Vincent could not her heart anymore.

The mangled Doc who was presumed to have died then jumped up and attacked Lash. The two grappled with each other. Lash was no match for the now super charged Doctor.

The Doc was choking Lash, when out of nowhere a form literally flew at the Doc.

"Oh my God! Vladlina's alive!" Claudia yelled.

Vladlina and the Doc wrestled with each other. The Doc was clearly losing; his soul wasn't strong enough for Vladlina's pure wrath. He threw her into the wrecked boat, and ran off into the woods.

"Vladlina!" Lash yelped as he ran to help the 'one' that mattered. "Wow, you aren't all deformed like 'Doc' over there. In fact, you look better than ever." Lash awkwardly laughed.

"Yeah, what you said back there, I think that helped." Vladlina reminded them of how just moments ago Lash professed his undying love to a girl he thought he'd lost. This caused everyone to blush from the embarrassment.

After this incident, Vincent planned that Lash and Vladlina would go take out any remaining crew on the Doc's ship, and use that as their escape off the island. Vincent stayed behind to investigate the statue.

As Vincent got close, he noticed that it was about 7 feet tall, of a man, and that there were words at the base of his feet.

"Farewell, savior of Remnant. May you be blessed forever. Take care Magnus." Vincent read aloud. "-Vigil." Then Vincent took a close look at the face of the statue, it was not unlike his own. It was more hardened and solemn however. It was the face of Magnus.

"What's up Vincent?" Claudia asked from behind Vincent.

Vincent was startled, Claudia had snuck up on him. "Oh, uh, it seems this is a monument for Magnus Van, the legendary savior of Remnant."

"What has he got in his hand?" Claudia wondered.

Vincent took a good look, and then chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Claudia further questioned.

"It's a bow, you know for arrows." Vincent laughed.

"I knew that!" Claudia stomped, mad at him for making fun of her.

Vincent thought back again to his time on the island, how Connor initially had him train with a bow and arrows. He was hopeless. One night, Vincent waited till Connor fell asleep, snatched his sword, and went outside to practice with it.

"You like it don't you?" Connor asked the child in mid swordplay.

"Oh, you're awake? Um, I can explain." The child stammered.

"You better. Your technique is undisciplined. Your legs need to be spread out a bit more, and your arms need to stay up high, a high guard is much more protective than a low guard." Connor said, while showing the child. "You like this sword more, don't you? Well I guess if you think you can handle a real swordfight… We'll start sword practice tomorrow, but I'm not giving up on the bow just yet."

Vincent was brought back to the present when Claudia said, "Hey Vincent, Lash and Vladlina are back. It's time to go."


	27. Chapter 27

_Sorry everybody, due to it being my birthday tomorrow, I will not release a chapter tomorrow. I know this one was short but I have a consolation prize at the bottom. Thanks and Take Care. _

Ch. 27 The Love Boat

Vincent found himself in the city of Vale. The sky was dark and the streets were silent, dead silent. Then there was an explosion behind him. He twirled around to see a warehouse burning to the ground.

"Bollocks! Those Vigil nutcases escaped the blast!" Georgio cursed seeing his assassination attempt on the loyal members of the League and Vigil fail.

"You're calling them crazy?" David questioned smugly while walking towards Georgio with lots of White Fang henchmen. "Yeah, Georgio, this is the part where you die."

Georgio then cackled. "I'm not losing a fight to a bunch of spineless animals." He then whipped out his large curved spear.

Vincent watched the two fight in their deadly duel. He watched as the whole of Vale was consumed in the fires of war.

"Vincent, wake up." Came a soft mumble, to Vincent's ears.

"Vincent, wake up!" Claudia's detached voice exclaimed.

Vincent awoke from his vision. He saw Claudia standing in the doorway of the ship cabin he had taken for sleep.

"Hey, I want you to see something." Claudia beckoned.

The two walked through the ship's halls silently. Claudia led him out to the forward bow.

"Ta da!" Claudia raised her arms to the rising sun.

Vincent watched the bright, warm, and hopeful sun rising over the pristine royal blue ocean. He turned to see Claudia. The ocean had nothing on her. She stood there with her hoodie, capris, high tops, bags under her eyes and a mournful smile on her face.

"Beautiful." Vincent said gazing at Claudia.

Claudia was also taking a good look at her leader. He was in a matching navy blue pants and button up shirt. His light brown overcoat and his unmistakable straw hat. Then her mouth tensed. "Where's your symbol?" She asked. "Don't you have one?"

Vincent stood in thought for a moment. "Of course I have one, everyone has some symbol."

"But where's yours? The point of a symbol is so everyone can see it. It's your way of telling people what your ideals, beliefs, and promises to yourself are." Claudia explained.

"I know that. I hide mine because I promised to myself long ago that I wouldn't let who I was on the island define me. I wouldn't let my sufferings and evil be known other than to those that I trusted it with." Vincent confided. After this explanation he lifted his overcoat.

There it was, endure, a simple sunflower shape, the middle of the flower was a swirling spiral, it was all a yellow color, going against the blue very well, it was not gold though, a lighter yellow, like flax. It shown there in the morning light, as if drawn toward it, growing to it, trying to absorb it's beauty, intelligence, and happiness.

Claudia in spite of herself let out a gasp. For being so simple, and so shy, it was one of the most magnificent things she had ever seen.

Vincent and Claudia then realized that they were both very close to each other. Neither one shied away at that moment though, because they secretly both knew that they wanted to enjoy the moment as best they could.

Without more than a look, Claudia and Vincent both leaned in, Vincent closed his eyes.

Vincent went blank, his knees buckled slightly, and he gently held Claudia's hands in his. The moment, only a few seconds, was a welcoming feeling. Vincent felt free and secure at the same time. He felt something he had longed for, peace.

The two then parted. Claudia beamed at her leader/dirty little secret.

"Not bad for my first time heh?" Vincent smirked.

"Second time actually, remember? On the beach? Mouth to Mouth?" Claudia reminded him while also smirking.

"Hey Vincent, how old are you?" Claudia then asked the artist.

"I'm almost seventeen, unless I'm lying, five years on an island will do that to you. But, I believe it will be in a few weeks." Vincent answered nondescriptly. "And you?"

"I'm seventeen, so I guess for now you've kissed an older woman." Claudia joked.

After this the two enjoyed each other's company for quite some time. A few hours later, the rest of the team awoke; the ship had taken them quite a ways. Claudia saw coastline in front of them. Her stomach dropped. They had to land ship here…Atlas, her hell hole known as 'home.'

_Theme Songs of the Characters:_

_Vincent-Chances, by Athlete_

_Vladlina-Until we get caught, by hit the lights_

_Lash-Don't look back in Anger, by Oasis_

_Claudia-Angels or Devils, by Dishwalla_

_Every bad guy-Everybody wants to rule the world, by Tears for Fears (Punny, right?)_


	28. Chapter 28

_Sorry for the delay, will try to get back to schedule. I wanted this chapter to be awesome, and the title speaks for itself. Back to business, take care._

Ch. 28 Obligatory Diner/Chase Scene

The ship hit land on a chilly, gloomy morning. The boat had completely run out of fuel, and it would be too expensive to get more, so the team ditched their escape. Claudia suggested that they go to an old diner to get some food and to plan what to do next.

Once entering the diner, the team found an empty booth near the front door. Claudia had said that the diner was once a popular local restaurant, but now it was almost empty.

"What'll it be kids?" The waitress asked unenthusiastically.

"Water and toast for me." Vincent answered.

"Orange juice and a few helpings of pancakes." Vladlina ordered. "What, I need to keep my energy up." She argued seeing her team's shocked faces.

"Blueberry muffins, and chocolate milk!" Lash bounced up and down, like a little kid.

"I'll have the bacon and eggs, with coffee, black." Claudia finished.

The waitress wrote down the orders, told the team it would be right out, and left.

Vincent sparked the conversation. "So guys, we've got no supplies, no way of contacting Beacon, limited resources, and to top it all off, we're all still roughed up from the last few fights we've been in. What do we do?"

"I think we should get some cash, and find a way to Vale." Lash suggested.

A woman sitting in the booth beside the team's stopped mid-bite hearing the word Vale.

Claudia responded. "I agree, but how?"

As this question was posed, Vincent noticed several people walk into the diner. They had a look to them like they were up to no good.

The waitress brought out their orders. One of the men noticed this, whispered to their friends, and pointed in their direction.

"Guys, we should get going." Vincent warned.

"Aw, come on! We JUST got it!" Lash whined.

The men then approached the teens. It looked like it would be a hard fight. Then the woman in the booth jumped up, laid the smack down on the goons, and told the teens to come with her if they wanted to live.

Naturally, they followed. The woman led them out of a back exit into an alley.

Vincent then tried to communicate with the mysterious yet helpful woman. "Excuse me. I have to ask you some questions."

"Alright, shoot." She said.

"Great, so…" Vincent began.

She cut him off. "Not you, the handsome one. Shoot!" She yelled at Lash, to cover their escape.

More goons quickly appeared at one end of the alley.

Lash laid down cover fire. The five rushed to the other end of the alley.

"Quick! On the bikes!" the woman led them to three motorbikes. The woman took the red one; it must have been her's. Lash and Vladlina came upon a black one, which left Claudia and Vincent with a blue one.

"Hop on, I'll drive." Claudia forcefully offered.

Vincent didn't argue. Around the corner, several classic muscle cars came roaring after the team. Vincent watched as the mysterious woman fearlessly shot through the streets accompanied with four teenagers and an army of goons.

One car got right up behind the blue bike. Vincent watched helplessly as it neared them. "Claudia, not to be a backseat driver or anything, but you should really speed up!" Vincent yelped.

"I'm going as fast as I can. Come on Vincent, use your head!" Claudia replied. Vincent watched the car trailing them pull out an assortment of weapons.

It dawned on Vincent that he had his own weapon to attack with. He quickly shot off plenty of paint to work as an oil slick. Claudia then caught up to the woman.

They were nearing an exit, the woman was signaling to keep going straight. All of a sudden, a huge fire truck came at them from the side. Claudia barely got ahead of it, but Lash had to swerve to the left to avoid getting killed.

The woman was now driving into an old, abandoned warehouse. Vincent was separated, lost, and not sure if he could trust this mysterious woman. Things could only go downhill from there.


	29. Chapter 29

_I'm still here... Take Care._

Ch. 29 Home, Sweet Home

Vladlina's head pulsed with blood, she felt the almost unbearable desire to hurt and maim. Whoever it was that almost hit her Faunus boyfriend and made them crash would pay.

She quickly checked on her 'deerly' beloved, he groaned signaling his relative health. Vladlina rose from the pavement, all her wounds already healed up. The teenage super soldier watched as a rather young man dismounted from the fire truck, grabbed some type of weapon from the side of the truck, and calmly strode over to their position.

"Don't come any closer." Vladlina warned. "Or I swear I'll…"

The man answered for her, "You'll what? Throw a little scrap metal at me? Tell on me to your daddy? Face it, there's nothing you can do to put out 'this fire'_. _

"Who are you?" Vladlina interrogated.

"Hasn't my little girl told you?" the man asked. "Claudia, I'm her father, Neroy Augusta."

Vladlina questioned Mr. Augusta. "What are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be hanging with the League, or something?"

Neroy responded. "The League is disbanded, the whole world is ending. I thought I drop on by my old home and beat the rest to 'the punch line' of burning this city to the ground."

"So you're just going to give up, let everything end in fire and ruin?" Lash chimed in.

Mr. Augusta simply smiled. "It's better to go out blazing than to fade away!"

Neroy then activated his weapon, a large brass trident, that combusted into flames at the ends. He aimed at the downed Faunus, Vladlina jumped to the rescue. The flames ignited the gas from the bike, exploding into the air. The duo just barely escaped a fiery death.

"I heard the price of gas was sky high, but this is RIDICULOUS!" Lash joked as he came 'Lashing' down upon Neroy.

The two blocked each other's weapons. Neroy was about to shoot more of his flares into Lash's face, when Vladlina shot the end of the trident out of the way.

"Gah, my hand!" Neroy raged, grabbing onto his wounded hand. Lash and Vladlina took their chance to try and escape. They jumped into a nearby subway station. The two heard Neroy's footsteps approaching, and hid behind one of the support beams.

Vladlina heard the footsteps descend the last of the stairs. They stopped, there was a faint breathing. Suddenly, one side of the support beam caught fire; Neroy rounded the other side with his trident ready.

"How did you?" Lash questioned confoundedly.

Neroy smirked and pointed to his eyes. "I have a sixth sense for heat. It's a nice party trick."

"Neat! Here's mine." Lash then shrieked unbelievably loud, throwing Neroy into the next support column.

This left Lash breathless and he also appeared to have lost his voice, because instead of telling Vladlina to run, he only pointed in the direction of the subway tracks.

"If you say so." Vladlina said more to herself than Lash. After a few hundred feet, Vladlina figured out why, she heard the sounds of her other teammates.

* * *

Back at the warehouse Vincent was beginning to feel very suspicious about the woman who had helped them. "What happened back there? Who are you? Why did you help us? We have to go back and get our friends. We have to leave town, head for Vale, and tell Ozpin all this is happening." Vincent rapid fired, trying to get his head around what had happened.

"It's all right, you can trust me." The woman said in a trusting, but vaguely dangerous tone.

Vincent calmed a little, then he freaked again. "NO, I need answers, starting with the ones I just asked."

The woman then sighed and took a seat on a crate. "If you insist, what happened back there was you all got ambushed by the ruffians that have taken over the town. Ever since the White Fang and Black Claw began waging their war, the streets of every city have been completely lawless."

"There must be some places that are still safe." Claudia reasoned.

The woman didn't turn to look at Claudia, but she did respond to her. "I'm not sure, I've heard that Vacuo has remained fairly safe, but they entered Martial Law, Commissioner Drake being the leader.

"How about Vale, at least Beacon, right?" Claudia asked.

"I don't know Claudia, if Beacon still stands, it won't for long, and it is right in the middle of the frontlines." The woman explained, with real sorrow in her voice.

Claudia looked a bit worried now. "How do you know my name?"

"Now onto the hard part, you already know who I am." The woman said.

"What do you mean? I have never seen you before in my life." Vincent thought.

The woman then smiled a bit. "Oh, I didn't expect you to know, poor, little, lost boy. I was talking to Claudia." The woman then turned to face her.

"Cinder?" Claudia asked. Then her face unperceptively writhed. "That's Impossible." She whispered in a deathly tone.

"Oh come now, little Claudia," Cinder chided, "that's no way to treat your mother."

Without knowing it, Vincent found himself walking towards Claudia, with his sword raised, about to take out his teammate, as the rest of his team came bursting through the ground. (Vincent really hoped this was some crazy hallucination.)


	30. Chapter 30

_I'm Back! Please do enjoy the chapter, I worked on it for quite a while. Also, checkout my Last Airbender fanfiction, it could get really good. Take care._

Ch. 30 The Home front

Unfortunately, Vincent was not hallucinating. Vincent thrust his sword in a downward arc. Claudia had just gotten out of the way. Lash tackled the 'mad' painter. Vincent jolted back to full awareness, with a migraine.

"Eh, what happened?" Vincent asked.

"No time to explain right now, we need to leave!" Claudia yelled in response.

The team saw three more people join Cinder; one looked like a Pharaoh, the other like an experienced soldier, and the last was Neroy Augusta. The ground began shaking. At that moment, a subway train came chugging underneath. The teens jumped down onto the last moving car. They had successfully escaped, for now.

* * *

The teens found an empty car and took a well-deserved break.

"All right, time to explain things." Vincent demanded.

"I'll start," Claudia started, "So it turns out, my mother didn't die in that fire. She faked her death, and changed her face."

Vladlina comforted her teammate. Lash tried to hold in his cynical laughter. Vincent merely contemplated. He was there, and still thought he was imagining it.

Lash got himself under control. "Yeah Claudia, we met your father. Great guy… really great guy."

"How about something not Claudia related?" Vincent urged, seeing the gradually worsening look on Claudia's face.

"I got a question, why were you about to slice and dice Claudia?" Vladlina sternly questioned.

Vincent felt their eyes upon him, wanting an explanation. Instead, Claudia explained for him. "You ever heard of seduction? Some people are just born to manipulate people, especially the opposite gender."

Vladlina asked Claudia now. "Is it like a semblance, or something?"

"No, it's just a practical skill, like aim, you have to practice, but eventually, anyone could master it." Claudia analogized.

Lash started snickering. "Vincent you know what that means? It means you think 'Claudia's mom has got it goin' on'." Lash laughed until he cried.

Vincent noticed a strange look on Claudia's face. Though, he didn't mention it.

Vladlina asked in general. "Where is this train going?"

"Next stop is Vacuo, right in the middle of all the action." A familiar voice answered from a dark corner, previously thought to be vacant.

Vincent sighed. "Good grief, not you again."

"What's the matter 'Vincey'? Don't you know how to greet an 'old friend'?" Tom Wellington joked.

Lash looked back and forth at the people's faces around him. "Tom? What are you doing here?"

Tom stood up, and crutched his way over to the other students. "Well, I'm no good with a broken leg at Beacon, so I got sent out to find people that were taken during the tournament."

"Then have you been successful?" Vincent asked the 'narrow minded' teen.

"I'll say!" Tom said flauntingly. "By myself, I've now found all the first year teams of Beacon students. Nobody suspects the cripple."

Claudia wanted to change the subject and found her chance. "Speaking of the other teams, where are they?"

"I sent them all back to Vale. If you didn't notice, a load of things has happened since you guys dropped off the grid. Beacon needs all the help it can get. That's why I'm sending you guys back too, as soon as possible." Tom said.

Vincent started talking. "That's great, but we're heading to Vacuo. How do we get from 'Martial lawed' Vacuo, to 'Battleground' Beacon, in one piece?"

"I'll tell you one thing for sure: the only thing harder than sneaking into Vacuo, is sneaking out." Tom stated.

"Do you have anything?" Lash asked.

"I got you guys some supplies. By the way you all look like crap." Tom mentioned.

After the team obtained many precious supplies including money, hygienic products, and food, they all settled down for a welcome reprieve of their duties.


	31. Chapter 31

_What's that? You wanted a new chapter? Well here you go! Take care._

Ch. 31 a Passion for Brushido

Vincent awoke to the sound of someone rifling through his things. He opened his eyes.

"Tom?" Vincent asked the thief.

"Oh!" Tom exclaimed under his breath. "I didn't know you were awake."

"What are you doing?" Vincent had to know.

Tom began. "I was looking for your weapon."

"Why?"

Tom gave a look that said 'just because,' but he realized that he would not be able to fake his way out of it. "Rumor has it that you are really important, and it has to do with your sword."

"What, this old thing?" Vincent unveiled Brushido in brush form from his sleeve. With little more than a grip to activate a hair pin trigger, it morphed into a Nagamaki (long handled katana) great for sweeping and brushing strokes. The sword ended in a regular brush instead of a point. One might think it lacks precision, but actually it just means each slash must be made precise, rather than just blindly stabbing.

"How do you use it?" Tom wondered, switching it between his hands.

Vincent made Tom stop messing around. "First of all, you don't change hands with it."

Tom froze, the sword in mid swing. "Oh, right. You know, it seems to be made of the same material as the Arc kid's shield."

"Makes sense, they were forged around the same time you know." Vincent mentioned.

Tom then slid his finger across the symbol on the hand guard. "It looks like, a tower, but that's not your symbol."

Vincent looked at it; he lost himself in his visions again.

Connor continued to teach the child how to fight with a sword. He had gotten quite good for just a few days training.

"Remember to keep your hands firm, like the earth itself." Connor reminded his student.

"Hey Mr. Connor, can I ask you a question?" the child asked.

Connor smiled wryly. "Please, call me Connor, Mr. Connor was my father. And yes, what do you want to know?"

"It's about the symbol on your sword." The child explained.

Connor walked over to examine the symbol, like he had never seen it before. "Ah yes, 'the tower of Passion.' It looks quite nice doesn't it?"

"I guess so, but what is it?" the child further questioned.

"Well, a long time ago there lived an artist of many varieties named Enigmund. This artist was so moved by his brother's sacrifice to save the world, that he dedicated much of his life to works of art for him." Connor told. "His biggest project ever was the tower of Passion, a huge monument meant to inspire all who would look up and gaze upon it. He made a symbol of the finished tower as his emblem. In fact, he spent the rest of his long life working on it."

"I don't think I've ever seen it before, and I've gone everywhere." The child emphasized.

"That's because it isn't finished yet, it's taken many, many years." Connor stated.

The child looked on at the symbol. "Why did it take so long?"

"All the records of the building were mysteriously destroyed in a fire right after Enigmund's death." Connor said sadly.

"Well it's a good thing we still have his sword, or no one would really know what it should look like." The child said ignorantly, but full of optimism.

"I guess you're right." Connor chuckled. "Now get back to training, you've had a long enough break."

"Hey 'Vincietti' did you hear what I said?" Tom asked, bringing Vincent back to reality.

Vincent felt dazed, like he had done something strange, but his head didn't hurt this time. "Uh, no sorry, what?" Vincent apologized.

"I said: we should all get ready to run, once we get off this train, it's 'bye bye' to the regular world."

Vincent thought about this. "Okay, but where are we going?"

"If you were listening, you would have also heard me say we're going to follow Lash. He told me about some friends he's made around Vacuo." Tom said with exasperation. "Once there, I can probably contact Beacon, if not, well another train comes in a few days."

Vincent looked out the window of the train car. "It looks like it's time to go." Vincent noted.


End file.
